Zuccarello Wins It For Minnesota 4-3 In OT Against Blackhawks

 

The Blackhawks returned to home ice on Tuesday to host the Wild in hopes of making a comeback after the Vegas Golden Knights shut them out on Saturday, but they ultimately fell 4-3 in overtime to Minnesota in a hard-fought game on both ends of the ice. Frank Nazar sent the game into overtime with a late third-period goal, but Mats Zuccarello won it for the Wild to snap their three-game skid while handing Chicago their second straight loss. Both teams meet again at Grand Casino Arena on Thursday.

Minnesota Wild Lineup:

Kaprizov - Yurov - Boldy

Zuccarello - Hartman - Tarasenko

Johansson - McCarron - Foligno

Trenin - Sturm - Fabbri

Hughes - Faber

Brodin - Spurgeon

Middleton - Bogosian

Gustavsson

Wallstedt

Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:

Greene - Bedard - Burakovsky

Bertuzzi - Nazar - Teravainen

Mangiapane - Donato - Mikheyev

Lardis - Lafferty - Slaggert

Vlasic - Levshunov

Kaiser - Rinzel

Del Mastro - Crevier

Knight

 Soderblom

Ryan Hartman gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 13:43 of the opening frame, scoring his 16th goal of the season when he took a quick pass from Kirill Kaprizov, who got the puck from Brock Faber behind the net after he skated in from the right before passing it off to Kaprizov. Hartman quickly flicked the puck past Spencer Knight from in close. Not long after the first Wild goal, Marcus Johansson made it 2-0 at 12:02 when a shot from the point by Jonas Brodin was denied by Knight, the puck deflected off Michael McCarron, making its way to Johansson for a goal from the bottom of the right face-off circle. This was Johansson's 14th of the season. Louis Crevier found the back of the net to get Chicago on the board for his fifth of the season to make it 2-1 at 9:13 of the first from above the right face-off circle after he took a pass from Frank Nazar, scoring on a snap shot to the far side. With 1:30 to go, Vladimir Tarasenko gave the two-goal lead back to the Wild, making it 3-1 with a power-play goal when he took a pass from Johansson and fired a wrister from the left circle.

Late in the second period, Ryan Greene brought the Hawks within 3-2, scoring his ninth goal of the season at 5:25. Crevier fired from above the right circle, the puck got caught in front in a scramble where Connor Bedard poked at it, and Greene put the puck in past Filip Gustavsson from in front.

Frank Nazar called overtime when he tied it 3-3 with 1:40 left in the third period, scoring his 11th of the season after Artyom Levshunov collected the puck from along the left wall, sending it across to Bedard, who was at the blue line of Minnesota's end, sending a backhanded pass to Nazar.

At 3:09 of overtime, Mats Zuccarello took a pass from Johansson, who received the puck from Faber, and Zuccarello put home a wrist shot from the top of the slot to win it 4-3.

Notes:

- Filip Gustavsson made 21 saves on 24 shots for Minnesota before leaving the game with 7:00 left in the third, and before he returned, he was replaced by Jesper Wallstedt, who made two saves in 3:27.

- Spencer Knight made a total of 33 saves for Chicago.

- Brock Faber recorded three assists, and Marcus Johansson picked up a goal and an assist. ...Faber recorded his 13th multi-assist game, tying Marek Zidlicky for the sixth most among Wild defensemen. Ryan Suter paces the list with 56.

- With his fifth overtime goal, Mats Zuccarello matched the fourth most in franchise history. He trails only Kirill Kaprizov (14), Mathew Dumba (6), and Jared Spurgeon (6).

- Connor Bedard collected a pair of assists, and both Frank Nazar and Louis Crevier recorded a goal and an assist.

- With his goal, Louis Crevier scored on a 102.54 mph slap shot, marking the hardest shot resulting in a goal this season, besting the previous mark of 100.13 mph, which was on November 28th, established by Darren Raddysh. 

- MN: 39-18-12, and lost three straight; 0-2-1.

- CHI: 25-30-12.

- This is Minnesota's 10th overtime victory this season, tying the San Jose Sharks and NY Islanders for the most among all teams. The Wild is one shy of matching their most overtime wins in a single campaign; 11 in 2021-22.

- Dating back to the 2019-20 season, the Wild extended their point streak against the Blackhawks to 19 games. This is the longest active streak against a single opponent, and the last club to have a similar run against a franchise is the Bruins; 19 vs. the Arizona Coyotes from 2010-11 to 2022-23.