ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Last year, the Chicago Blackhawks gave the Minnesota Wild a quick exit from the playoffs.
This year, the Wild are giving the defending Stanley Cup champions all they can handle.
Jason Pominville and Matt Cooke scored first-period goals and Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Thursday night.
After losing a five-game series in the first round of last year’s playoffs, the Wild have won three of four against the Blackhawks this season.
“I know we get geared up to play that team,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “I think the fact that we’ve played them as much as we have, I think our guys are confident going into the game knowing we can play with them.
“Obviously they’re such a great team, and we have so much respect for them, we haven’t taken any nights off against that hockey team.”
Kuemper was making his sixth consecutive start as Minnesota’s top two goalies, Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom, have been sidelined with health problems. The Wild are 5-3 with rookie in the net this season.
“I’m pretty confident right now,” Kuemper said. “Obviously I just want to go in there and every time I get a chance, help the team win. And when you’re getting wins like this, obviously it’s easy to keep rolling and come to the rink every day with a smile.”
Patrick Kane spoiled Kuemper’s shutout bid when he scored his 24th goal of the season with 31.2 seconds left to bring the Blackhawks to within one. But Kuemper stopped one final flurry in the last 10 seconds and Zach Parise cleared the puck from Minnesota’s zone to run out the clock.
Pominville opened the scoring at 8:08 of the first period. Dany Heatley carried the puck across the Chicago blue line and passed to Mikael Granlund near the goal mouth. Granlund spun back around and slid the puck across the slot, where Pominville was waiting to send it in the open net for his 20th of the season.
“He’s the type of player that doesn’t really need to know I’m there,” Pominville said of Granlund. “He just has a feel for it.”
The Blackhawks killed off a 5-on-3 power play, but Minnesota doubled its lead late in the first period. Justin Fontaine won a race to a loose puck and tipped it to Cooke, who slipped it past Antti Raanta from the left faceoff circle.
“They made a decent play,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “After the big kill that was a deflating goal, but there was still a lot of hockey left.”
Raanta, who entered the game with a 12-1-3 record this season, was upset with himself after the game for putting his team in a 2-0 hole early.
“Their first goal was pretty nice, tic-tac-toe, but the second one was too easy,” Raanta said. “When they get two goals in the first period you’re behind all the time. It’s much harder to play because Minnesota was defensively so good. Every goal counts and today there was one easy goal so that’s not a good thing.”
Kuemper got a little help from his defense to keep it 2-0 late in the second. During a Minnesota power play, Pominville tripped at the Chicago blue line and Marian Hossa pounced for a short-handed breakaway. But defenseman Ryan Suter caught up to Hossa just in time to prevent him from getting a clean shot.
Kane’s goal prevented them from being shut out for the first time in 120 games, but the Blackhawks lost in regulation for only the second time since Dec. 15.
“They’re the best team in the league and … they’re going to see every team’s best game. It’s pretty impressive what they’re doing, even this year,” said Parise, who returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a broken left foot.
“For whatever reason, our game elevates when we play them. And I thought … we did a good job of containing their top players. Other than Kane getting that one at the end, we did a pretty good job of neutralizing them.”
NOTES: Blackhawks D Duncan Keith missed his first game of the season Thursday. He was a pregame scratch due to illness. … Blackhawks senior adviser Scotty Bowman is scheduled to have right knee replacement surgery Friday in Tampa, Fla. The 13-time Stanley Cup champion has a residence about an hour from Tampa. … Kuemper’s mask broke during the second period, and he used Backstrom’s mask for about 10 minutes while it was being fixed.
BLUE JACKETS 5, FLYERS 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Matt Calvert and Brandon Dubinsky each had a goal and assist to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a team-record eighth-straight win ”“ and the longest active streak in the league ”“ with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the franchise’s 1,000th game.
Jack Johnson, Derek MacKenzie and Nathan Horton also scored for Columbus.
Sergei Bobrovsky, last season’s Vezina Trophy winner as the league’s top goalie, made 26 saves in his first game against his former club.
Brayden Schenn and Vincent Lecavalier scored for the Flyers, playing the second of an unscheduled back-to-back set after a snowstorm in Philadelphia pushed their game, a 3-2 loss to Carolina, to Wednesday.
DUCKS 2, KINGS 1
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Patrick Maroon scored the tiebreaking goal on a wraparound late in the second period, and the Ducks beat the Kings 2-1 in the prelude to the clubs’ landmark outdoor game this weekend.
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves for Anaheim as the Southern California rivals warmed up for their meeting at Dodger Stadium on Saturday with a physical, hard-hitting meeting dominated by the Ducks’ defense.
Dustin Penner scored a power-play goal in the NHL-leading Ducks’ 20th victory in 23 games.
Anze Kopitar scored early in the first period and Jonathan Quick stopped 19 shots for the Kings, who have lost four straight.
BLUES 2, RANGERS 1
NEW YORK (AP) — St. Louis defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk scored the tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third period, and the Blues got the best of the Rangers.
Alexander Steen also had a goal for the Blues before leaving late in the second period with a lower-body injury. David Backes had two assists, and Jaroslav Halak made 34 saves in beating New York’s Henrik Lundqvist in a matchup of Olympic goalies.
New York’s Rick Nash scored his sixth goal in four games ”“ netting at least one in each ”“ but Shattenkirk took advantage of Nash’s slashing penalty, scoring 9 seconds into the power play at 3:09.
Lundqvist made 23 saves in his return from a one-game absence caused by the flu.
HURRICANES 5, SABRES 3
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Alexander Semin had two goals and defenseman Andrej Sekera added a score at 9:50 of the third to lift the Hurricanes over the Sabres.
Jeff Skinner also scored for the Hurricanes, who overcame three one-goal deficits. Jiri Tlusty sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with one second remaining.
Cody Hodgson, Tyler Ennis and Brian Flynn scored for Buffalo, which dropped to 0-3-2 in its past five games.
PENGUINS 6, ISLANDERS 4
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Rookie defenseman Olli Maatta scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and Evgeni Malkin added an insurance score in the third as the Penguins held on for a wild win over the Islanders.
The Islanders had a 5-on-3 power play for 50 seconds late in the third, but couldn’t score against backup Jeff Zatkoff, who made 30 saves for the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins (36-13-2).
Brandon Sutter scored an empty-net goal for the Penguins, who trailed 2-0 early and also got goals from Chris Kunitz, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang.
Michael Grabner, Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo had goals for the Islanders.
LIGHTNING 4, SENATORS 3, SO
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the lone shootout goal and the Lightning beat the Senators.
Kucherov beat Craig Anderson on the first shot during the shootout. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop stopped all three shots he faced.
Tyler Johnson, B.J. Crombeen and Ondrej Palat scored in regulation for the Lightning, who had lost each of their previous five home games (0-3-2) by one goal.
Erik Karlsson, Clarke MacArthur and Chris Neil had the Ottawa goals.
Neil tied it at 3 from the right circle with 2:18 remaining in the third.
STARS 7, MAPLE LEAFS 1
DALLAS (AP) — Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals to lead the Stars to a victory over Toronto.
Jamie Benn had his 100th career goal and three assists for Dallas, which broke open a 2-1 lead with four second-period goals and ended Toronto’s six-game winning streak.
Cody Eakin added a goal and an assist, and Alex Goligowski, Sergei Gonchar and Tyler Seguin each had two assists for the Stars. Kari Lehtonen made 24 saves.
Nikolai Kulemin scored for Toronto.
PREDATORS 2, CANUCKS 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Nick Spaling scored the go-ahead goal on the power play in the third period and the Predators defeated the Canucks for their fourth win in five games.
Craig Smith also scored for Nashville, and Carter Hutton made 33 saves.
Chris Higgins scored for Vancouver, which got 24 stops from Roberto Luongo.
The Canucks, who still hold down the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, had their two-game winning streak come to an end.
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