The Chicago Blackhawks lost Andrew Shaw to an injury, but won the game to take a 1-0 series lead over the Minnesota Wild.
Shaw was hit by Wild defenseman, Clayton Stoner, in the first period and didn't return due to a lower body injury. After the hit Shaw limped over to the bench and went to the locker room.
The Wild know about injuries, which have seemed to hit their goalies hard this season. Darcy Kuemper was injured during game seven against the Colorado Avalanche and is out day-to-day with an upper body injury.
The Wild had to start Ilya Bryzgalov in net and he looked shaky early in the game. He wasn't square to the shooter and was flopping around but nothing got past him until 14:48 of the first period. Jonas Brodin went to the box for four minutes after catching Marian Hossa with a high stick, which gave the Blackhawks the man advantage. Brent Seabrook got the puck to Hossa, who passed it right back to Seabrook and he took a slap shot from the point. There was plenty of traffic in front of Bryzgalov and Bryan Bickell got his stick on the puck to tip it past the goalie and into the net for a 1-0 Blackhawks lead.
The Wild had some opportunities short handed but couldn't cash in. On one play, Nick Leddy made a nice defensive play on Zack Parise and he didn't even get the shot off after being in on a breakaway. The Wild had another opportunity short handed but once again the Blackhawks managed to get back into position.
In the second period, the Wild spent a lot of time in the Blackhawks zone. They even had a power play but couldn't convert so the Blackhawks still had the one goal lead. Then Brodin went to the box for his second high sticking minor of the game. This time it was only for two minutes but Hossa made sure that he paid for taking the penalty. Leddy got a quick pass of to Brandon Saad and he skated towards the net and sent a backhand pass over to Hossa. Hossa put the puck up and over Bryzgalov's pad for the 2-0 lead.
The Blackhawks were out shot 17-3 in the second period and Corey Crawford kept them in the game.
The Wild scored twice in the third period to erase the two goal deficit. Stoner picked a good time to get his first goal of the playoffs. Jason Pominville took the shot from the point which went wide. Parise got the puck back to Stoner, who let a shot rip from the point. Blackhawks defeneman, Johnny Oduya, made a nice stick save but the puck then trickled past him as he battled with Pominville in front of the net.
Kyle Brodziak tied the game off of a nice pass from Eric Haula, but the Blackhawks came right back to take the lead again. Patrick Kane got the puck in the neutral zone, skated it into the offensive zone, made some moves, and backhanded the puck over Bryzgalov's shoulder for the 3-2 lead.
Patrick Sharp kept the puck in the Wild's zone after a save by Brzygalov. He took the shot from the point and Ben Smith had the deflection, which went right to Kane. Kane knew exactly what to do with the puck and gave the Blackhawks the 4-2 lead.
The Wild pulled Bryzgalov with just about three minutes left in the game since they were down by two goals, but Bickell scored the empty net goal. The Blackhawks skated away with the 5-2 lead even though the Wild played a pretty decent game.
If the Wild are looking to even the series, then they need to hit the net with their shots more. It seemed like they missed the net either high or wide quite a few times tonight. The Wild also need to have a better penalty kill since they allowed two goals in four opportunities tonight.
The second game of the series is on Sunday at 3pm on NBC.
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