Game Recap: Wild 4, Blackhawks 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild continued its success and momentum under new Head Coach John Hynes in Sunday afternoon’s 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks inside Xcel Energy Center. The Wild is now 3-0 under Hynes, who the team named as Dean Evason’s replacement on Monday night.

The coaching change has sparked and fueled the Wild, who improved to 8-10-4 on the season Sunday. That’s evident by their three straight wins — all against Central Division rivals — which is the Wild’s longest winning streak so far this season. (The Wild previously won two in a row against the New York Rangers and Islanders on Nov. 4 and 7.) The Wild enters this week’s four-game road trip with confidence.

“Our confidence right now is really good as a team,” Marco Rossi said. “We won three in a row. We just try to get better every day. The road trip is a good test for us.”

The win streak is a byproduct of the Wild's improved play this week under Hynes. The Wild won 3-1 over the St. Louis Blues at home on Tuesday and followed up with a 6-1 road victory against the Predators in Nashville on Thursday.

“It's definitely night and day,” Brock Faber said of the team’s confidence. “I think going on this trip we're confident but again three wins is good for us. It's a step in the right direction, but we're still below .500 here. So, we know we have to keep getting better, trust the process and keep playing this way and keep building.”

Sunday was more of the same.

“I thought we settled in and played the way we want to, with some speed, some pace,” Marc-Andre Fleury said. We had the puck a lot. We’re not giving them too much (in) the second and third.”

The Wild put forth a complete effort against the Blackhawks and got rewarded for it with two points. A three-goal first period surge paved the way to entering the road trip on a good note. The Wild, who outshot the Blackhawks 34-29, dominated at five-on-five with 33 of the 47 scoring chances, 65 percent of the shot attempt share and 67 percent of the expected goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Wild outscored the opposition 13-3 this week in Hynes’ first three games behind the bench. During this span, the Wild’s league-worst penalty kill has gone 10-for-11, its power play has gone 3-for-8 and its defense has been top notch. That doesn’t even include the Wild’s improved goaltending from Filip Gustavsson and Fleury, who have combined for a .963 save percentage in those three games.

“It’s really been a good week, and I think today it was just continuing to hammer home the way we want to play,” Hynes said. … “So, it was nice that we could put, for the most part, three pretty complete games together.”

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Wild’s rookies shine

Rossi and Faber took center stage in Sunday’s rookie showdown against the Blackhawks No. 1 overall pick this past summer in Connor Bedard, who played his first regular season game against the Wild.

Rossi opened the scoring just two minutes and 11 seconds into the game when he tipped Faber’s shot from the point past Petr Mrazek (four goals allowed on 34 shots).

The Wild doubled its lead about 10 minutes later on the power play when Rossi’s shot from the slot beat Mrazek glove side, the end of a slick passing sequence that started with Faber and Freddy Gaudreau.

Rossi had two goals, four shots and six shot attempts in 15:10 of ice time on Sunday. Rossi is second in rookie scoring right now with eight goals, behind only Bedard at 11.

Faber recorded two assists, two shots and finished second to Jonas Brodin in ice time among Wild defensemen at 22:18 on Sunday.

“Faber and Rossi have been very good in my experiences with them,” Hynes said. “What I’ve noticed with them is not just the talent level, but both guys can skate. It’s a skating league. You have to be able to play quick and fast. Both guys can do that.

“But just their maturity level as players, they play both sides of the puck well. I think when they have opportunities to make plays, they have some poise and confidence with it. And then when they don’t have the puck, they’re able to check well, and that’s been nice to see. And I think if you have those two combinations, and you play key roles, that’s important to be able to do.”

Fleury added: “They’ve been great all year for us. They’ve got so much speed, so much pace.”

As for Bedard?

The 18-year-old had no answer aside from a secondary assist. Overall, the Wild limited him to only one shot and two shot attempts at five-on-five in 14:46 of ice time. Bedard finished the day with three shots and six shot attempts overall in his 19 minutes of ice time.

Zuccarello continues streak

Zuccarello’s strong tear has flown under the radar so far this season as the 36-year-old continues to improve his point totals with age. Zuccarello extended his point streak to nine games Sunday with a goal and two assists.

Late in the first period, Kirill Kaprizov sent a cross-slot pass to Zuccarello, whose one-timer from the right circle beat Mrazek low short side to give the Wild a 3-0 lead with 2:53 left.

Then Zuccarello recorded a primary assist when his shot from the left circle deflected off Matt Boldy and past Mrazek with 8:24 remaining in the middle frame. The Wild took a 4-0 lead on the power play goal.

“His vision is really good,” Rossi said of Zuccarello. “Some players don’t see what he sees. It's really nice to play with him.”

Zuccarello leads the Wild right now with 26 points and is on pace for a 22-goal and 97-point season. Zuccarello recorded a career-high 79 points with the Wild during the 2021-22 campaign — his third season in Minnesota.

No rust for Fleury

Fleury’s last start was over two weeks ago on Nov. 17, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Sweden. On Sunday, he didn’t show any signs that the time off affected him. In fact, he had one of his best performances so far this season with 28 saves on 29 shots for his season-high .966 save percentage.

On the Blackhawks first power play opportunity, Fleury made seven key saves to keep the Wild up 1-0. Fleury’s sharpness on the penalty kill served as a prelude to his strong performance in net Sunday.

“(Fleury) had some really good saves,” Rossi said. “He kept us in the game.”

The only goal against Fleury came with 7:05 left in the contest. Taylor Raddysh broke his shutout bid on the power play when he deflected Tyler Johnson's feed past Fleury from the blue paint.

“He was big,” Hynes said of Fleury. “There’s key moments in games, and that was one. I would say Chicago right off the bat, they were coming, and we were kind of on our heels a little bit — and then we took the penalty.

“But to get a good kill, and to get some big saves right there, that’s what you need sometimes. That gives you the ability to get up and running, and I thought we responded well after the kill.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, Fleury saved 1.57 goals above expected and made six high-danger saves en route to his fourth win of the season. Fleury now has five starts this season where he has recorded a .929 save percentage or higher.

Fleury, at 995, is five games away from 1,000 — a feat only three goalies (Martin Brodeur, 1,266; Roberto Luongo, 1,044; and Patrick Roy, 1,029) have done in NHL history. Fleury is also only four wins away from claiming sole possession of second place (behind Brodeur at 691) in wins in NHL history.

Next up: The Wild has a four-game road trip this week that starts with three games in Canada against the Calgary Flames (10-11-3) on Tuesday, Vancouver Canucks (16-8-1) on Thursday and Edmonton Oilers (9-12-1) on Friday. After ending the trip against the Kraken in Seattle Sunday, the Wild has three days off before their next home game against the Flames on Thursday, Dec. 14.