Wild finish as Hawks blow 5-1 lead to Minnesota

ST. PAUL—OK, the surging Blackhawks are not perfect.Trailing by four after 40 minutes, the Minnesota Wild heard the boos from their home fans. Four goals and a shootout later, the comeback was complete, and the cheers were deafening.Mikko Koivu and Owen Nolan scored in the shootout after Minnesota scored four in the third period, and the Wild beat the Blackhawks 6-5 on Saturday.With less than 14 minutes left in regulation, the Wild got goals from Kim Johnsson, Mikko Koivu, Marek Zidlicky and Guillaume Latendresse to send the game to overtime.Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer and Marian Hossa scored in regulation for the Hawks, who had surrendered just 27 third-period goals all season before Saturday. The Blackhawks snapped a five-game winning streak.The Wild scored three goals in a 2:05 span early in the third to pull within a goal, igniting their largest home crowd of the season before Latendresse tied it with 1:33 to play.After a scoreless overtime, Minnesota needed eight rounds to decide the shootout. Patrick Kane got the Hawks only shootout goal.The Blackhawks struck quickly, getting on the board just 82 seconds into the game when Sharp buried the Hawks second shot on goal. Brian Campbell’s rink-wide pass set up the play, as Sharp got his team-leading 15th goal.Minnesota answered later on a similar play, with Martin Havlat feeding a crossing pass to Latendresse, who tied the game 1-all. The assist by Havlat, who led the Blackhawks in scoring last season before signing with Minnesota as a free agent over the summer, extended his season-high point streak to seven games.Toews and Versteeg scored later in the first period to put the Hawks up 3-1, and the Blackhawks got a power play goal by Brouwer and a shorthanded goal by Hossa to open a seemingly-safe lead.But things got closer, and louder, in the third. Johnsson chipped in a goal for Minnesota, then Koivu scored just 45 seconds later.Dustin Byfuglien was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking on the next shift, and Zidlicky blasted a long shot on the power play that sailed under Cristobal Huet to make it 5-4.Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom, needing one win to become the Wild’s all-time leader, instead had his roughest outing of the season, giving up five goals for the first time since an overtime loss to San Jose on March 10, 2009. He had seven saves in the first two periods but was replaced by Josh Harding for the final 25 minutes and the shootout. Harding finished with 13 saves, and stopped seven of eight shots in the shootout.Huet finished with 16 saves for the Blackhawks, who play their next two at home before embarking on a season-high eight-game road trip.

NOTES—Cam Barker was on the trip and participated in the team’s morning skate, but sat out his third consecutive game with an upper body injury….Hossa’s shorthanded breakaway goal in the second period was the league-leading seventh shorthanded goal by the Blackhawks this season. Minnesota has now allowed a league-worst eight shorthanded goals.