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The Minnesota Wild are officially very much alive in their 2nd round playoff series versus the Blackhawks—in fact, their 4-0 win last night probably gave them a bit of momentum, while taking some wind out of the Hawks’ sails.
That said, there’s probably no NHL team with more “been there, done that… in their mental makeup than Chicago. And they lost a game in Minnesota last year before rebounding to take the series in 5.
It was, until the latter part of the third period, a tightly checked game with few quality scoring chances. And that style of play, unfortunately for Chicago fans, does not suit the Hawks well.
Not surprisingly, the Wild reversed two trends I pointed out yesterday, getting a goal and an assist from their leading playoff scorer Zach Parise and solving the Hawk penalty kill on one of their goals.
The initial kneejerk reaction of some Hawk fans might be to address the Hawks’ lack of scoring in game 3 by, for example, playing Jeremy Morin and sitting, say, Brandon Bollig. Well, whether that matters or not, typically at this time of year, it’s the team that can play grittier that prevails over the team that tries to play prettier.
The possible return of Andrew Shaw (lower body, day to day) for Game 4 might be a nice shot in the arm to cure what ails the Hawks.
But hats off to the Wild. It’s on!
Back with more tomorrow,
JJ