Patrick Kane on bouncing back from Game 3.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Twice during random moments in Game 3 of the second-round playoff series between the Blackhawks and Wild, a wonky goal light began to flash.
It just might have been the hockey gods imploring the teams to create some scoring chances because through two taffy-pull periods Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center, there was a whole lot of skating around and not much offense.
In the third, it was a different story as Mikael Granlund twice lit the lamp for real and Erik Haula and Zach Parise also scored to propel the Wild to a 4-0 victory over the Hawks that tightens up the best-of-seven series at 2-1 with Game 4 here Friday night.
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- United Center, 1901 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
- 199 Kellogg Boulevard West, Saint Paul, MN 55102, USA
- 1901 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov made 19 saves for his fourth career postseason shutout as the Wild righted themselves on home ice. Corey Crawford suffered the loss in goal for the Hawks, yielding three goals on 14 shots.
"I don't think either team really took over the game," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "We started playing the way we could when we went down 2-0. It's a little frustrating to understand why that is. I guess that's part of their game plan. They want to try and take away our speed and take away our play and keep us (below) 20 shots. We just have to find a way around that."
The defending Stanley Cup champions weren't able to solve the equation in Game 3 as they had their six-game winning streak snapped. The setback marked a ninth consecutive loss in the opening road game of a playoff series, dating to the 2010 Western Conference finals against the Sharks.
"There wasn't much going on (for) either side," Crawford said. "Not too many scoring chances the whole game. They were able to convert a couple of odd-man rushes. Any time you give up three goals in one period, it's going to be tough to win a hockey game — (that's) not counting the empty-netter.
"No one said it was going to be easy. They are a tough team. They play hard and they showed us they have some skill."
After playing more to the Hawks' freewheeling style in the first two games of the series at the United Center, the Wild slowed the pace and often kept the visitors hemmed into their own zone.
"They tend to play that game once in a while," Crawford said. "They like to shut things down and put you to sleep. We were fine … going into the third period. Things just got away from us."
Added Toews: "They kept it an even game until late and then got their crowd into it and we just couldn't find a bounce to battle back. If they get the lead, they're a smart defensive team (and) they're going to try to slow it down and make it even tougher on us to create offense."
The Hawks will look to put things back together in Game 4 or risk letting the Wild even the series and make it a best-of-three.
"We knew we had to win this game — we can't fall down 3-0 against that team," Wild coach Mike Yeo said.
"We're not sitting here patting ourselves on the back. We know that we're still not leading the series. They are, so our goal is to come back and even it up."
Crawford succinctly put a capper on the mindset the Hawks will take heading to Game 4.
"So what?" he said. "(Tuesday) was one game. We'll move on to the next one."
ckuc@tribune.com
Twitter @ChrisKuc
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