Hawks Dominate Wild 5-2

The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in a dominate performance at United Center to move into first place in the Central Division one point ahead of the St. Louis Blues.  Chicago improved to 26-13-5 on the year.  After falling behind early on a Devin Setoguchi goal, the Hawks stormed back with 4 unanswered goals of their own.  Rookie Andrew Shaw would open the scoring for the Hawks flying up the left side boards used a Bryan Bickell pick and put a wicked wrister by Minnesota goalie Josh Harding to tie the game at 1-1.  Chicago outshot the Wild 13-8 in the opening 20 minutes before blowing the game open in the second period.  With Justin Falk off for hooking, Rookie Jimmy Hayes found the back of the net on the power play off a feed from Dave Bolland to give the Hawks the lead 2-1.  Just 23 seconds later Jonathan Toews took a hit along the right side boards and fed Viktor Stalberg who beat Harding for his 4^th goal in two games and gave the Hawks a 3-1 advantage.  Dave Bolland off a steal and shot gave the Hawks another power play goal and Chicago led 4-1.  That would be it for Josh Harding who was replaced by Matt Hackett, the nephew of former Hawk’s net minder Jeff Hackett.  Minnesota’s Kyle Brodziak would pull the Wild within 2 goals with 11:04 to play putting home a juicy rebound off the pad of Ray Emery.  With the Wild goalie pulled, Dave Bolland would add an empty netter to notch his second goal of the game and give the Hawks a 5-2 advantage.  That would be the final as the Hawks won for the second straight night and second time against the Wild this season.  The Hawks outshot the Wild 30-23 for the game.  Chicago will skate next in Detroit on Saturday morning in another key Central Division match up.  The Hawks are now 16-5-4 on home ice.