Wild surge past Blackhawks for first win of season

Devan Dubnyk made 36 saves to help the Minnesota Wild to their first win of the season, 5-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday.
Minnesota (1-1-1) scored four goals in the third period playing with eight forwards after Marcus Foligno, Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle each left with an injury.

WATCH: [All Wild vs. Blackhawks highlights]
"I think it was a really gutsy effort by our club," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I don't think I've played shorthanded like that in the NHL. … They came in here wanting to win."
It was the first game the Blackhawks (3-1-1) failed to score more than two goals. They had outscored opponents 21-7. It was the first loss of the season for Corey Crawford, who made 29 saves.
"[Minnesota] came in ready," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "They were sharp off the puck drop. … They check well. They won a lot more puck battles than we did in vital situations."
Eric Staal made it 1-0 Wild with 35 seconds left in the second period.

Ryan Hartman tied it 1-1 at 8:21 of the third period. He picked up a loose puck in front of Dubnyk, who was screened by Tanner Kero, and scored glove-side.
Chris Stewart scored at 10:32 to put the Wild ahead 2-1. Quenneville challenged that Jason Zucker was offside prior to the goal. The call was upheld after video review determined Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook caused the puck to enter the attacking zone.
"I was just trying to go hard to the net there," Stewart said. "On the replay it looked like their guy kicked it back into the zone, so it was onside. Kudos to [Zucker], that was one heck of a pass. Can't miss those ones."
Zucker scored on the power play at 12:29 to make it 3-1.

Stewart scored his second of the game into an empty net at 15:56 to put the Wild up 4-1. Mikko Koivu scored a second empty-net goal at 17:59 to make it 5-1.
Jonathan Toews made it 5-2 by scoring a power-play goal with 56 seconds left.
"It was [all about] digging down deep to make sure we got the two points," Zucker said. "Everybody was doing their part. We had guys who don't typically kill penalties that were killing. We had guys on the power play that typically aren't there, so everyone was chipping in, and that's huge for us…It was a gutsy win for us."
Boudreau said Niederreiter and Coyle likely will not play in the home opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. Each left the game in the third period. Foligno's status is unknown.

Niederreiter appeared to be injured on a hit, Coyle left after blocking a shot off his ankle, and Foligno fought John Hayden in the first period and left in the second.
Minnesota was also without forwards Zach Parise (back) and Mikael Granlund (groin). The Wild could be down five forwards and may not be able to recall anyone from Iowa of the American Hockey League because they have just over $200,000 in NHL salary cap space, according to CapFriendly.com.

Goal of the game

After Seabrook kicked the puck into the Blackhawks zone from the neutral zone, Zucker collected it, skated into the left face-off circle and passed across the slot to Stewart for the go-ahead goal.

Saves of the game

Dubnyk stopped wrist shots by Lance Bouma at 14:30 and 14:35 of the second period. He made 16 saves in the period, including six in a one-minute span. "When you get stuck out there rolling around on your end that's going to happen, but all we can do is weather the storm," Dubnyk said.

Highlight of the game

Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon batted the puck out of the air and away from the net at 11:23 of the second period to keep the game 0-0.

They said it

"With injuries comes opportunity. We know guys have to step up and we did that tonight. We'll enjoy this tonight and get back to work tomorrow and get ready for Columbus." -- Wild forward Chris Stewart
"We've played some good hockey, and you know we had a good game tonight and we fought to the end there and, you know, it didn't go our way on the overturn (challenge) there and it kind of changed the game around a little bit." -- Blackhawks forward Ryan Hartman

Need to know

Chicago forward Brandon Saad had his four-game point streak end. He's tied with Hartman for the Blackhawks lead with seven points (five goals, two assists). ... Toews extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists). … The win was Dubnyk's 100th for the Wild. ... Stewart leads Minnesota with five points (four goals, one assist).

What's next

Wild: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-N, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: Host the Nashville Predators on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET; WGN, FS-TN, NHL.TV)