Gustafsson's second goal lifts Blackhawks past Wild in OT

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Erik Gustafsson scored his second goal of the game at 1:19 of overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Gustafsson scored on a slap shot from the high slot on the power play.
"Even if I don't score the goal, we need the win right now and that's the biggest part here," Gustafsson said. "It was a Central Division] game, and they're in a [Stanley Cup Playoff] spot and we want to get there, and it was a huge game for us."
***[WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Wild highlights]*
Alex DeBrincat had a goal and two assists, Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Strome and Dominik Kahun each had two assists for Chicago (20-24-9), which has won a season-high four in a row. Collin Delia made 28 saves.
Victor Rask scored his first goal with Minnesota (26-22-4), which has lost two in a row. Alex Stalock made 27 saves.
Jason Zucker gave the Wild a 1-0 at 8:22 of the first period, scoring on a one-timer in the slot off a pass from Mikael Granlund on a power play.
DeBrincat tied it 1-1 at 7:51 of the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle following a stretch pass from Kahun. Debrincat has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a five-game point streak and has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in his past 10 games.

Gustafsson gave the Blackhawks 2-1 lead with a slap shot from the point at 14:47. Wild coach Bruce Boudreau challenged the play for offside, but the call was upheld after a video review.
Mikko Koivu tied it 2-2 with a snap shot from the high slot at 8:11 of the third period, but Toews scored off a backdoor pass from Patrick Kane on the power play at 15:25 to make it 3-2. With the assist, Kane extended his point streak to 11 games (nine goals, 17 assists), the longest active point streak in the NHL.
"I thought the first period we were really good," Boudreau said. "I thought the second period, the last 10 minutes they took over a little bit. But we came out in the third period and we pushed and when we got that goal, I thought things were going to be really good. Jonathan Toews, this isn't the first time he's done this to this organization. You could see why him and Kane are making $10.5 million. They're superstars. They played 27 minutes, and we're trying to match lines, but we can't match playing that many minutes with those guys."

Rask, who was acquired by Minnesota in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 17, tied it 3-3 at 16:58.
"It's that time of year where we can't let anything slip anymore," Toews said. "We put ourselves in a spot where it's time to go on a run. We can't really think of that in that sense, but we've got confidence. We went into the break playing and feeling well, we're coming out of the break, same thing. We've been saying in our locker room that we've got to go in every single night playing for two points."

They said it

"Everyone wants to make the playoffs here. It's not a secret. I think we were five points out coming into this game. ... Anything can happen in this League. I think we needed a good stretch of games to make it close and we're pushing. These guys have a lot of experience in here and we want to be in the playoffs." -- Blackhawks forward Dylan Strome
"I look at it as we're 3-1-1 in our last five. Let's take it that way. …The only thing I'd like to see better is us not missing those Grade A chances that we seem to get every night, and we want to be cute by making a play instead of just putting it as hard as we can through the net." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Blackhawks forward Brendan Perlini had two shots in 7:34 of ice time in his return after missing three games with a concussion. … Kane's point streak is the longest by a Blackhawks player since Artem Anisimov also had an 11-game streak from Oct. 15-Nov. 6, 2016. … Strome has had multiple points in three of his past four games (two goals, five assists). … Wild forward Pontus Aberg didn't play because of a lower-body injury. … Granlund has four assists, all on the power play, in a three-game point streak.

What's next

Blackhawks:At the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, WGN, NHL.TV)
Wild:At the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)