Chicago Blackhawks (15-28-5, 35 pts) vs Minnesota Wild (28-17-4, 60 pts)
6:00 p.m. CT – United Center
TV: CHSN (Ball/Pang)
Radio: WGN 720 AM (Wiedeman/Murray)

The points continue to roll in for the Chicago Blackhawks, even if the victories are not. Heading into tonight’s season series finale against the Minnesota Wild, the Blackhawks have gone 1-0-3 in their last four games and have moved one point ahead of the San Jose Sharks for 31st in the NHL. Take THAT, Sharks.

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks have blown a lead in each of their overtime or shootout losses over the last four games. So the pessimistic viewpoint says they’ve left points on the table in games they could have won, but the optimistic viewpoint says a team that has been in last-place in the NHL for the majority of the season has taken tough teams down to the wire in recent games. Take it how you want.

Lost in the craziness of the trade on Friday that saw the Blackhawks, Hurricanes, and Avalanche swap multiple picks and players, was an encouraging performance by the Blackhawks youth against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Colton Dach scored his first NHL goal, Frank Nazar scored his second goal of the season off a nice feed from Connor Bedard, and then Nazar made a nice pass to defenseman Louis Crevier on his way to his third goal of the season and of his NHL career. Both Nazar and Crevier tallied their first ever multi-point NHL games.

On top of the production in the scoresheet, defenseman Ethan Del Mastro made an impressive season debut in his third-ever NHL game. Albeit in a disappointing overtime loss, the kids are looking alright.

The Wild are coming off a 5-4 loss at home last night to the Calgary Flames, so logic says the Blackhawks should have the fresher legs of the two teams tonight. If Chicago can land the first punch against Minnesota, it will be the 28th time the Blackhawks will have done so this season, which would rank them fourth in the NHL in games scoring the first goal, a category they used to lead. It would also give them the head-to-head upper hand against a team that also has a perchance to scoring the game’s opening goal as the Wild coming into tonight’s game third in the NHL in that category with 29 games where they’ve scored first.

Season Series

11/10/24 vs MIN – 2-1 OTW
11/29/24 at MIN – 3-2 L
12/23/24 at MIN – 4-3 L
1/26/25 vs MIN

Blackhawks Team Leaders

G-Tyler Bertuzzi (17)
A-Connor Bedard (29)
P-Connor Bedard (42)
PPG-Tyler Bertuzzi (8)
SOG-Connor Bedard (113)
PIM-Pat Maroon (65)

Wild Team Leaders

G-Kirill Kaprizov (23)
A-Kirill Kaprizov (28)
P-Kirill Kaprizov (51)
PPG-Matt Boldy (6)
SOG-Matt Boldy (168)
PIM-Marcus Foligno (49)

Blackhawks Team Stats

GF/G-2.60 (31st)
GA/G-3.44 (30th)
PP%-23.5 (9th)
PK%-81.2 (11th)
SOG/G-24.9 (32nd)
SA/G-31.4 (30th)
FO%-44.8 (30th)
PIM/G-8:30 (20th)

Wild Team Stats

GF/G-2.90 (19th)
GA/G-2.88 (11th)
PP%-19.1 (23rd)
PK%-70.3 (30th)
SOG/G-27.9 (19th)
SA/G-29.7 (27th)
FO%-48.0 (27th)
PIM/G-7:50 (12th)

Blackhawks Probable Lines

Forwards
Frank Nazar-Connor Bedard-Tyler Bertuzzi
Teuvo Teräväinen-Jason Dickinson-Ilya Mikheyev
Colton Dach-Lukas Reichel-Nick Foligno
Pat Maroon-Ryan Donato-Philipp Kurashev

Defensemen
Alex Vlasic-Louis Crevier
Alec Martinez-Seth Jones
Nolan Allan-Ethan Del Mastro

Scratched:
T.J. Brodie

Injured:
Laurent Brossoit (knee), Connor Murphy (OUT), Craig Smith (IR)

Wild Probable Lines

Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov-Joel Eriksson Ek-Mats Zuccarello
Liam Ohgren-Marco Rossi-Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno-Frederick Gaudreau-Ryan Hartman
Jakub Lauko-Marat Khusnutdinov-Yakov Trenin

Defensemen
Jacob Middleton-BrockFaber
Declan Chisholm-Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merril-Zach Bogosian

Scratched
Devin Shore, Travis Dermott

Injured
Marcus Johansson (IR), Jonas Brodin (IR), Jesper Wallstedt (OUT)

Probable Goaltending Matchup

Petr Mrázek (9-16-2, .896 SV%, 3.26 GAA, 0 SO) vs Filip Gustavsson (18-10-3, .913 SV%, 2.63 GAA, 3 SO)