Chicago captain Jonathan Toews scored the game-winning goal in the third period as the Blackhawks recovered from a pair of losses to edge the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Sunday and regain the advantage in their Western Conference semi-final series.
With the game tied at 1-1, Toews scored at 4 minutes, 33 seconds in the final frame to lift the defending Stanley Cup champions to a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven series.
It was his fifth goal of the post-season, though not necessarily his most attractive.
“It was just an ugly goal,” Toews told reporters. “As a line, we were playing well and we were just trying to find a way to score, and just got an ugly one on the side [of the net]. It felt good that we could hold on.”
After losing Game 3 and Game 4, the Blackhawks can close out the series in Minnesota today.
So far, the home team has won every game of the series and the Blackhawks are a perfect 6-0 on home ice this post-season.
“We definitely would like to finish it [in Minnesota],” Chicago forward Marian Hossa said of Game 6. “We know how hard it is to play in their building and we know we have to be better than we were in the last three games.”
The Wild grabbed a 1-0 lead late in the first period when Erik Haula tallied, before Bryan Bickell evened up the contest in the second when he converted a power-play opportunity.
Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford finished with 27 saves to Ilya Bryzgalov’s 26.
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