CHICAGO (AP) _ The low-scoring Minnesota Wild struck early _ and often _ against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Alexandre Daigle scored twice and Minnesota set a franchise record for goals, beating Chicago 8-2 on Thursday night.
``That's a rare game,'' Daigle said. ``They don't happen often anywhere in the league.''
Andrei Zyuzin, Wes Walz, Matt Johnson, Anti Laaksonen, Rickard Wallin and Marian Gaborik also scored for Minnesota. Pascal DuPuis had four assists, and Filip Kuba and Gaborik assisted on two goals.
``It was fun out there,'' said Dupuis, who assisted on both of Daigle's goals. ``It's always fun when you can help your team win.''
The Wild broke the team record of seven goals set in a 7-4 home victory over Chicago on Jan. 7.
``I think we got quick plays and great passes around the net,'' Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. ``We got probably four goals like that.''
Mark Bell scored and assisted on Brett McLean's goal for Chicago, which outshot Minnesota 35-25.
``We have no choice. We have to put it behind us,'' McLean said. ``It's a game we want to forget, but the mistakes we made we can't make again.''
Blackhawks rookie goalie Adam Munro played the entire game. Starting goalie Jocelyn Thibault dressed for the first time since Nov. 7, but did not relieve Munro.
``I wanted to stay in,'' Munro said. ``I don't like to get pulled at all. I was trying to battle through it, and I couldn't do it.''
Chicago coach Brian Sutter didn't consider pulling Munro, playing in just his fifth NHL game.
``No thought on it,'' Sutter said. ``We played three games in four nights. I wanted to be fair to (Thibault), too.''
Minnesota scored three goals in a 1:41 span of the first period. Zyuzin opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:27, Walz scored 20 seconds later, and Johnson tipped Kuba's slap shot past Munro at 9:08.
