Wallstedt, Kaprizov lift Wild in shutout of Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Jesper Wallstedt made 24 saves for his first NHL win, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 at United Center on Sunday.

Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist for Minnesota (37-31-9), which would have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention with a regulation loss.

Wallstedt, who was playing in his second NHL game, was recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Saturday.

"Yeah, it's incredible," said Wallstedt, who made his NHL debut on Jan. 10, when he allowed seven goals in a 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. "Thinking back to that Dallas game, just reflecting, and all the emotions are hitting. There was like 15 seconds on the clock and, 'OK, we're doing this.' Yeah, it's pretty incredible to both feel and see that the work I've put in since that day in Dallas, and every single day that I've gone since then has really paid off. The team played incredible in front of me, too."

Arvid Soderblom made 33 saves for the Blackhawks (23-49-5), who have been shut out 13 times this season. They were coming off a 3-2 victory against Dallas on Saturday.

"Yeah, for whatever reason, I guess a little bit of fatigue," Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. "But [the Wild] played and traveled, too (they lost 4-2 to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday), and they just had a little bit more in their tank than we did tonight. We just couldn't really muster too much together on offense, and then we couldn't kill anything defensively. So, just way too much time in the [defensive zone]. Their good players, when they had the puck, were really good."

Kaprizov gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 1:06 of the second period. He took a cross-ice pass from Matt Boldy and scored from the right face-off dot.

It was Kaprizov's 40th goal of the season, the third straight season he has reached the mark.

"His fitness level is really impressive, but to me, [it's] more his ability to recover," Wild coach John Hynes said. "He can come on (the bench) after a shift, and I can look down 20-25 seconds later, and he's not breathing heavy at all. And he's ready to go. That's nice to have, when you have a player like him who has the engine he has to be able to play big minutes. And we all see the way that he competes. It's not like he's out there floating around. He's in the game."

Marco Rossi made it 2-0 at 12:30. Mats Zuccarello passed to the bottom of the right circle, where Rossi scored with a snap shot past Soderblom.

"[Soderblom] played really well for us the last however many games here now," Blackhawks forward Colin Blackwell said. "And I feel like we're not giving him the run support or anything along those lines. But he made some huge saves for us, and that could have been a heck of a lot worse. So, kudos to him. I thought he stood on his head for a lot of the saves that he made and kept it manageable for a little while there. But ultimately, you can't have that effort, especially on a back-to-back."

The Wild went ahead 3-0 at 18:27 when Frederick Gaudreau tipped in Zach Bogosian's shot from the right point.

Kaprizov made it 4-0 at 8:10 of the third period off a drop pass from Brock Faber.

"It helps when guys talk to you, right?" Faber said. "'Kirilly' yelled for it, so it wasn't too difficult of a play on my end, for sure."

The Wild had lost two in a row, including Saturday, when Hynes said they had too many "passengers."

"I thought it was a pretty complete game tonight just throughout the lineup," Hynes said. "I thought the attention to detail in some of the areas … we didn't give up a lot of odd-man rushes or easy looks from a defensive perspective. That's part of what I was talking about last night, so it was good to see the response."

NOTES: Among rookie goalies to debut with the Wild, Wallstedt is the second to get his first shutout in two appearances or fewer (Josh Harding, two games in 2005-06). … Rossi scored his 21st goal of the season. He is six shy of tying Kaprizov (27 in 2020-21) for the most in a season by a Wild rookie.