ST. PAUL—The last time Minnesota had an NHL team, The Blackhawks topped the list of opponents fans wanted to watch – and cheer against. The Wild have long replaced the North Stars, but now that the Blackhawks will join them in a new eight-team conference next season, a ferocious rivalry could be revived. Their tense meeting on Wednesday night was quite the warmup. Patrick Kane’s goal in the second round of a shootout clinched a fifth straight victory on the road, 4-3 over Minnesota in a matchup of the top two teams in the Western Conference.The Wild lead the NHL with 44 points. The Blackhawks, who are 7-1-1 in their last nine games, have 42.Marian Hossa and Michael Frolik gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 edge with second-period goals 89 seconds apart, but Kyle Brodziak and Matt Cullen answered for the Wild a few minutes later to tie the game. After a frenetic overtime period, with plenty of prime opportunities for each side during the 4-on-4 portion of the game, the stage was set for the shootout. Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery denied Cullen’s snap shot, and Dany Heatley lost the puck on his try for the Wild. With the score by Jonathan Toews already on the board, Kane raced toward goalie Niklas Backstrom, slowed to almost a dead stop and made a slick right-left move to get Backstrom to commit to his backhand. Kane then slammed the puck into the open net with a wrist shot.Emery laughed and shook his head.”He went four or five different directions. It was a pretty spectacular ending,” the goalie said. Toews made a slick move of his own to skate out from behind the net past defenseman Mike Lundin, put a move on his partner, Nick Schultz, to square himself with the net and zip a shot past Backstrom’s stick to give the Blackhawks the lead back with 13:06 left. Koivu’s shot from the slot slipped past Emery, though, to make it 3-all with 5:04 remaining.