Blackhawks Hang On To Beat Wild In Game 1 Of Western Semifinals
CHICAGO (AP) — Teuvo Teravainen broke a tie with his first playoff goal and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, on Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.
The Blackhawks, trying to knock out Minnesota for the third straight year, struck first after taking out Nashville in six games in the opening round. Game 2 is Sunday night in Chicago.
The 20-year-old Teravainen came through with 58.2 seconds left in the second period after Chicago blew a 3-0 lead. Held out of the final four games of the first round, he scored from a difficult angle, and the Blackhawks hung on from there.
Brandon Saad scored 1:15 into the game. Patrick Kane and Marcus Kruger added goals just over 2 minutes apart in the first period.
Corey Crawford made 30 saves, and the Blackhawks came away with the win even though they were outplayed for big portions of the game.
Zach Parise had a goal and an assist for Minnesota, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund also scored, and Thomas Vanek had two assists.
Devan Dubnyk stopped 31 shots, but the Wild came up short after beating St. Louis in the first round.
The Wild scored three goals in an 8:09 span in the second period to wipe out a 3-0 deficit, only to see Chicago take the lead on Teravainen's goal. He picked the puck off the left board and fired a quick shot high off the right post and into the net.
Crawford preserved the lead in the third when he saved a shot by Matt Dumba with his left toe with 7:38 remaining. He stopped Nino Niederreiter's point blank just over a minute later.
Minnesota's Jason Pominville missed a half-open net from about 15 feet, the puck fluttering wide left with about 2:40 left.
Notes: The Blackhawks are 23-4 in their past 27 home playoff games. ... Chicago F Kris Versteeg sat out with a lower-body injury that coach Joel Quenneville said was not serious. ... The Wild are winless in seven playoff games at Chicago.
(© 2015 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.)
