Hartman, Wild defeat Blackhawks on late goal, move into 1st in Central

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Ryan Hartman broke a tie with 1:11 left in the third period, helping the Minnesota Wild defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-1 at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Hartman won the puck from Chicago defenseman Connor Murphy near center ice and scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1.
"You don't get that much time sometimes," Hartman said. "I was going to shoot high glove and I decided not to last second. I almost even faked myself out."

Ryan Reaves and Frederick Gaudreau scored, and Filip Gustavsson made 22 saves for the Wild (42-22-9), who are 3-0-1 during a four-game point streak and moved one point ahead of the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division. The Stars lost 3-1 to the Vancouver Canucks later Saturday.
"This is a game we should win," Gustavsson said. "That's what we said before, these two points are our points if we don't play the wrong way. It was tight out there today. It didn't feel like we really had the speed in the first period and it was kind of slow. We got a goal and we tried to ride it out, but they scored [to make it] 1-1. And then 'Hartsy' bailed us out today."
Lukas Reichel scored, and Alex Stalock made 22 saves for the Blackhawks (24-42-6), who have lost four in a row.
"I thought the guys skated really hard," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. "Disappointing that they didn't get at least a point, get to overtime, but you know, it was just an unfortunate bounce to the end. I think right from the start we played really in their way and frustrated them quite a bit. That was the game plan is the forecheck and tracking and really giving them no room out there."
Reaves gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:45 of the second period. He stole the puck near the left boards, brought it around the back of the net and backhanded it in front, where it was deflected in.
"It doesn't matter how it goes in as long as it goes in," Reaves said.

Reichel tied it 1-1 at 1:15 of the third, scoring from the right face-off circle after keeping the puck on a 2-on-1.
"[On] a couple 2-on-1s, I always try to force it for the pass, so just shoot it and it went in," Reichel said.
After Hartman's go-ahead goal, Gaudreau scored into an empty net at 19:29 for the 3-1 final.
"It's good for us to play games like this against teams that are maybe out of the playoffs or playing loose but yet hard," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "…They're playing hard. They're playing for jobs and all that kind of stuff. They're difficult games sometimes to play, but if we play how the Wild play, we'll be fine."

NOTES: Wild forward Matt Boldy had a seven-game point streak (12 points; eight goals, four assists) and three-game goal streak (six goals) end. … Reaves has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past seven games after having eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his first 58 games this season. … Blackhawks forward Reese Johnson played for the first time since Feb. 19, finishing with five hits in 12:16 of ice time. He missed 16 games in NHL concussion protocol.