Wild Snipe Blackhawks In Shootout

The Minnesota Wild handed the Chicago Blackhawks their first loss of the season, 3-2, in a shootout Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild struck first just 1:30 into the opening period when former SCSU Husky Matt Cullen put home a rebound off a Devin Setoguchi shot. Mikael Granlund also was credited with an assist on Cullen's first goal of the season.

Chicago's Andrew Shaw tied the game at 5:14 of the first period when he beat Wild goaltender top shelf for his first goal of the season. Shaw was assisted by Bryan Bickell and Patrick Kane on the tying tally.

Just over a minute and a half later Jonathan Toews snuck a wrister through Harding's five-hole and Wild coach Mike Yeo decided he had seen enough. Yeo summoned Niklas Backstrom off the bench to relieve a shaky Harding after just 6:45 of ice time with the goalie only having faced four shots. Toew's fourth goal of the season was assisted by Marian Hossa.

The Wild seemed to respond to the move, keeping Chicago off of the board for the remainder of the first period. Minnesota led the shot category 15-7 at the first intermission, but found themselves trailing 2-1.

The Wild wasted no time in putting home the tying tally at the beginning of the second period. Cal Clutterbuck deflected home a Tom Gilbert wrister from the blue line for his first goal of the season just :59 into the second.

Chicago outshot Minnesota 8-4 in the second period despite the Wild owning the frame's only power play. The game would remain tied heading into the second intermission with the Wild outshooting Chicago 19-16 overall.

The teams both went scoreless in the third period to send the game into overtime. The Wild managed only two shots on goal in the third, and just six combined in the second and third periods.

The overtime period passed without a goal as well. Minnesota managed four shots in overtime. Final shots on goal ended up 32-25 in favor of Chicago.

Zach Parise was called upon first in the shootout, and the Wild's prize offseason acquisition did not disappoint, dekeing backhand and scoring forehand to give the Wild the 1-0 advantage.

Backstrom stopped Chicago's Toews on the Blackkhawks first chance, then Matt Cullen scored for the Wild to give them the 2-0 shootout victory.

The Wild improved to 4-2-1 with the win, Chicago fell to 6-0-1 with the shootout loss.