Hartman, Wild hold off Blackhawks for fourth win in past six games

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Ryan Hartman scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:13 left in the third period, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Cam Talbot made 21 saves for his fifth straight win for the Wild (36-20-4), who have won two in a row and four of six.
"We played as good a game defensively as we had in a while, and that's what it takes this time of year," Talbot said. "There's no blowouts, really, this time of year; it's going to be those one-, two-goal games with an empty-netter kind of thing. You have to be comfortable with those situations, and the last couple of games we've shown that we can play those."
Seth Jones scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 31 saves for the Blackhawks (22-31-9), who have lost nine of 13.
"I thought we played well," Chicago coach Derek King said. "That's a good hockey team. … 'Lanks' was outstanding, he kept us in the game. We had our opportunities, we just had a little breakdown on that go-ahead goal. … Overall a pretty solid effort."

Frederick Gaudreau gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 16:36 of the first period. Kevin Fiala broke into the zone and passed to Gaudreau, who scored with a wrist shot from the high slot. Fiala's assist gave him an NHL career high in points (55; 20 goals, 35 assists).
Jones tied it 1-1 at 8:57 of the third period with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Hartman made it 2-1 at 16:47 when Kirill Kaprizov worked the puck off the wall to Mats Zuccarello, who sent the puck to Hartman backdoor with a one-touch pass. The assist gave Zuccarello his NHL career-high in points (62; 19 goals, 43 assists).
"Miscommunication in the D-zone," Jones said. "Seems like it's happened a lot this year in the last few minutes of a game."

Greenway scored an empty-net goal at 19:53 for the 3-1 final, extending his goal streak to an NHL career-best three games.
"We didn't score tonight like we've been accustomed to, certainly early in the year," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "We were getting four, five goals. It's not going to happen anymore. We liked how we did play defensively, and we didn't press. We had great looks, no question about that. Wasn't going in and we didn't panic.
"We just stayed the course. Kept doing what the Minnesota Wild do and we were fortunate to catch a break and get one. That's playoff hockey. It's the time of year that you're not going to score easy goals. And I don't care who you're playing in this league. At this time of year, everybody's tight and playing properly, so really happy with that end of our game."

NOTES:Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic had one blocked shot in 6:10 of ice time in his NHL debut. Vlasic was selected in the second round (No. 43) of the 2019 NHL Draft by Chicago. … Forwards Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk played their first game with Chicago after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade for forward Brandon Hagel on Friday. Raddysh had five hits and one blocked shot in 15:03, and Katchouk had two shots on goal and two hits in 12:24. … Kaprizov has scored a point in 27 of his past 31 games (44 points; 22 goals, 22 assists). His assist on Hartman's goal was his 76th point of the season. Only two players in Wild history have more in a season: Marian Gaborik scored 83 in 2007-08 (42 goals, 41 assists in 77 games), and Brian Rolston scored 79 in 2005-06 (34 goals, 45 assists in 82 games). … With an assist, Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane reached 50 for the eighth time in 15 NHL seasons. Kane has scored 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) in his past eight games. … Fiala scored 54 points (23 goals, 31 assists) in 2019-20 for Minnesota. ... Zuccarello scored 61 points (26 goals, 35 assists) in 2015-16 with the New York Rangers.