Blackhawks Gameday Preview: Blackhawks road trip continues vs Wild

Chicago Blackhawks (12-20-2, 26 pts) vs Minnesota Wild (20-10-4, 44 pts)
7:00 p.m. CT – Xcel Energy Center
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

After building up to a three-game win streak, the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t extend it to four games after a 6-4 loss to the Calgary Flames on Saturday. Now looking to get a new streak going, the Blackhawks head to Minnesota for the final game before the holiday break to face the Wild, who have lost their last four games.

While the Blackhawks saw the end of both their winning streak and the penalty-killing streak (33 in-a-row) on Saturday, they didn’t go down without a fight. Trailing 5-1 in the third period, the Blackhawks scored three-straight goals, including once with their net empty, to cut the score to 5-4 before the Flames added an empty net goal to seal the game.

Tyler Bertuzzi scored two of the late goals for the Blackhawks and Ilya Mikheyev had the other in the third period. Bertuzzi also assisted on Connor Bedard‘s ninth goal of the season which cut the Flames lead to 2-1 earlier in the first period. Both Bertuzzi and Bedard tallied three-point nights and Mikheyev extended his goal streak to four games, with five goals scored in that span.

Also with a big game against the Flames was Teuvo Teräväinen with a two-assist performance. In his last four games, Teräväinen has a goal and nine assists and continues to extend the biggest points streak of his career. He remains second on the team in points with 23, six behind Bedard for the team lead.

The Wild have totaled two goals in the past three games and have two goals or fewer in five of their past six. It has been 17 periods since the Wild scored a goal without Kaprizov on the ice.

Season Series

11/10 vs MIN – 2-1 OTW
11/29 @ MIN – 3-2 L
12/23 @ MIN
1/26 vs MIN

Quotables

There’s some good and some things that he could be doing better. I think he just needs to play to his strengths and not defer.” – Anders Sorensen on Frank Nazar‘s first five games this season

“He’s always finding good ice and battling in front of the net. It’s not an easy job and I’m just trying to put the puck in an area where he can get a stick on it and he’s doing the hard work. It’s fun when you know a guy is going to be there and battle his ass off to put one in.” – Connor Bedard on Tyler Bertuzzi’s power-play efforts.

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Ryan Donato (11)
A-Connor Bedard (21)
P-Connor Bedard (28)
PPG-Teuvo Teravainen (5)
SOG-Bedard (83)
PIM-Connor Murphy (38)

Wild Team Leaders

G-Kirill Kaprizov (22)
A-Kirill Kaprizov (27)
P-Kirill Kaprizov (49)
PPG-Matt Boldy (4)
SOG-Kirill Kaprizov (115)
PIM-Marcus Foligno (32)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.56 (29th)
GA/G-3.18 (24th)
PP%-22.5 (11th)
PK%-85.2 (4th)
SOG/G-25.5 (30th)
SA/G-29.6 (27th)
FO%-43.4 (31st)
PIM/G-8:19 (13th)

Wild Team Stats

GF/G-2.91 (19th)
GA/G-2.68 (6th)
PP%-17.8(22nd)
PK%-69.4 (30th)
SOG/G-28.3 (18th)
SA/G-28.5 (16th)
FO%-48.2 (25th)
PIM/G-7:31 (10th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Taylor Hall-Connor Bedard-Tyler Bertuzzi
Nick Foligno-Frank Nazar-Ryan Donato
Teuvo Teräväinen-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Pat Maroon-Lukas Reichel-Joey Anderson

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan-Seth Jones
Kevin Korchinski-T.J. Brodie

Scratched:
Philipp Kurashev, Louis Crevier

Injured:
Laurent Brossoit (knee), Alec Martinez (neck), Craig Smith (IR)

Wild Probable Lines

Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov-Marco Rossi-Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson-Frederick Gaudreau-Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno-Marat Khusnutdinov-Ryan Hartman
Brendan Gaunce-Travis Boyd-Devin Shore

Defensemen
Jonas Brodin-Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm-Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill-Zach Bogosian

Scratched
Ben Jones, Travis Dermott

Injured
Joel Eriksson-Ek (IR), Jacob Middleton (IR), Yakov Trenin (DTD)

Probable Goaltending Matchup

Arvid Söderblom (5-7-1, .913 SV%, 2.56 GAA, 0 SO) vs Marc-Andre Fluery (6-3-1, .898 SV%, 3.11 GAA, 0 SO)

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