On Thursday morning, Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes talked of the run-up to the playoffs providing an opportunity to tinker with line combinations and defensive pairings. On Thursday evening he got to try just that, the hard way.
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Playing their first game this season without star forward Kirill Kaprizov, who was scratched due to a lower body injury and is considered day-to-day, the remixed Wild lineup struggled to generate offense at times, eventually falling to the Blackhawks 2-1 in their final meeting of the season with Chicago.
Nico Sturm scored for the Wild, whose recent home struggles continued. Minnesota is now 0-3-1 in is last four games in St. Paul, despite a 24-save effort from starting goalie Jesper Wallstedt on Thursday.
Out-shooting Chicago early, the Wild still found themselves back on their heels midway through the first when the Blackhawks got the game’s initial power play. But Wallstedt had four saves during the man advantage to hold Chicago harmless.
After the Blackhawks took the lead on a tap-in with Ilya Mikheyev going hard to the Minnesota crease, things got heated in the final two minutes. Two Blackhawks and two Wild went to the first intermission break extra rested after a 10-player scrum behind the Chicago net.
It was the first of three notable dust-ups in the game, as the Central Division rivals provided a few scenes reminiscent of the Blackhawks-North Stars battles of a few generations ago.
The Wild bench got a bit less crowded midway through the middle frame when forward Nico Sturm blocked a shot that glanced off his right leg. He needed help getting to the bench and headed down the tunnel immediately.
Chicago went up 2-0 later in the second when star forward Connor Bedard took the puck away from Marcus Johansson at the far blue line and sailed in on a breakaway, holding off Johansson long enough to flip a backhander past Wallstedt.
But Sturm shook off the pain and returned with some emphasis, streaking down the left side of the offensive zone and zipping a shot between the Chicago goalie’s knees. Hunter Haight’s set-up pass was the rookie’s first NHL point.
Early in the third, Jake Middleton took a stick to the ear and Mats Zuccarello was tripped a short time later, giving the Wild 95 seconds of two-man advantage. Minnesota managed two shots on goal during the power play, and watched pucks fired by Matt Boldy and Vladimir Tarasenko solidly hit the goalpost.
Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight, who lost to the Wild in overtime two nights earlier in Chicago, had 28 saves in the win.
With Kaprizov scratched and the Wild still missing forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno, Haight was recently recalled from Iowa and was skating in his sixth NHL game. Minnesota also got some additional good health in Bobby Brink’s return to the lineup after missing the previous four games with an upper body ailment.
The Wild wrap up a stretch of playing six of seven at home on Saturday with the Dallas Stars visiting for a 3 p.m. CT game.
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