Crawford gets second straight shutout, helps Blackhawks top Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Corey Crawford made 24 saves for his second consecutive shutout, and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Minnesota Wild 2-0 at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Crawford has made 59 straight saves. The last goal he allowed was on the last shot in a 6-3 loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 28.
Prior to his shutout against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, Crawford had not had one since Nov. 3, 2016, against the Avalanche.
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Wild highlights]
"I'm feeling pretty good with that, getting a good feel for when to come out, when to come out aggressively, stay deep and read for a pass across," Crawford said. "That's a big part of the game, but right now it feels pretty good."
Artem Anisimov scored the game-winner on the power play at 14:18 of the third period, tipping in a shot by Duncan Keith. Anisimov has four goals in his past four games.
"It's getting better each game like with the linemates and stuff," said Anisimov, who skated with Patrick Sharp and John Hayden. "How many games, five games we've played together and we start to get chemistry going."

Alex DeBrincat scored an empty-net goal at 18:23.
Chicago (7-5-2) won its second game in a row and is 3-4-1 in its past eight.
"I thought we had a real good first period tonight," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I thought we did some really good things. Our rush game could've been better defending it. We generated off the rush as well.
"I'd say we'd still like more production. At the same time, the better you check the more offense you get off it. Tonight I still don't think we generated enough offense but certainly I didn't mind the way we played without it."
Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves for Minnesota (5-5-2) and lost for the first time in his past four starts.

"You're not going to win hockey games if you don't put the puck in the net when you've got open nets," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "It's just not going to happen. I mean granted both goalies were out of this world I thought. When you have open nets and you have two breakaways in the third period you've got to score because eventually the other team is going to get that one chance and put it in."

Goal of the game

Anisimov's tip at 14:18 of the third.

Save of the game

Crawford stopped Eric Staal on a breakaway at 2:49 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Crawford's save on Jared Spurgeon on a breakaway at 3:57 of the third.

They said it

"He was great tonight again coming off an outstanding game against Philly. [On] that one play they just keep going wider and wider and he looks like he doesn't have any room left to keep pushing out to prevent the open side play and he made a couple of big plays like that. He just finds the puck and battles like crazy on every shot and the second shot as well. He's been great. It's been fun watching him." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on goaltender Corey Crawford
"You know what, we've played 12 games and other than one game against Detroit (a 4-2 loss on Oct. 5) every game has been a one-goal game or we've been tied in the last 10 minutes of the game. I don't think we're trying to find ourselves. We just have to do what we're supposed to be doing. We could've won 11 out of those 12 games and everybody would be saying, 'Jeez. We are a super team.' It's not. It hasn't gone our way right now so we'll get back to the drawing board and we'll put a good road trip together and things will be good again." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Crawford's 1.75 goals-against average and .945 save percentage lead the League. … Anisimov won 10 of 16 face-offs (63 percent). … Minnesota had 22 blocked shots, including five by defenseman Ryan Suter. … The Wild ended a six-game homestand 3-3-0.

What's next

Blackhawks: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)
Wild:At the Boston Bruins on Monday (7 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, FS-N, NESN, NHL.TV)