Hawks vs. Wild

Last evening the Blackhawks and Wild faced off in Minnesota. During the first few minutes of the game, the Wild seemed to be in charge; they skated circles around the young Hawks, and the Hawks looked completely lost. Pavol Demitra scored the first goal of the game, on the power play, off of a nice feed from Gaborik, that beat Lalime blocker-side. The Hawks answered right back when Jason Williams tried to pass the puck to Patrick Sharp, but the puck bounced off a Wild skate and past Backstrom. That seemed to give the Hawks the lift they needed, and they finished the period strong. The only goal of the second period came from Duncan Keith, when he, while standing behind Backstrom, batted the puck out of mid-air and into the net. Lalime made a great save in this period when Jordan Hendry fumbled the puck, which sent Pavol Demitra and Marion Gaborik on a two-on-zero; Lalime got the pad down on the ice to prevent Gaborik from taking Demitra's feed and scoring. In the third period, while on the power play, Dustin Byfuglien took a pass from Jason Williams and slid the pass past Backstrom to put the Hawks up 3-1. The Wild scored once more, but Craig Adams scored an empty-net goal to seal the deal for the Hawks. They now have eight wins in the last eleven games. Tonight they take on the Anaheim Ducks at the United Center. They will probably be without Khabibulin, Lang, Havlat, Sopel, or Zyuzin.