Stewart pair leads Wild past Hawks in injury filled contest

Chris Stewart fired a pair of the four third period goals for the Minnesota Wild who finally hit the win column with a 5-2 win at the United Center against the host Chicago BlackHawks on Thursday (Oct. 12, 2017)

The Wild never trailed in the contest, but it took a while to get things started.

Eric Staal’s goal 35 seconds away from the end of the second period stood up as the only goal through the first 40 minutes and Charlie Coyle, who was later injured in the contest, picked up the assist. Marcus Foligno and Nino Niederreiter also left the game with injuries so the win was a costly one.

Ryan Hartman’s second of the season tied the score 8:21 into the final frame, from Tanner Kero and Patrick Kane but the Wild connected on the next four.

Stewart scored his third of the season with 9:28 to play, from Jason Zucker and added his fourth a little over four minutes later from Tyler Ennis and Jared Spurgeon. In between the two Stewart markers was one by Zucker, from Mike Reilly and Matt Cullen and Mikko Koivu made it a 5-1 game with 2:01 to go, from Kyle Quincey and Joel Eriksson Ek. Stewart’s second and Koivu’s were both fired into an empty Chicago goal.

Jonathan Toews fired the final goal, his third of the season, from Hartman and Gustav Forsling with less than a minute to go.

Devan Dubnyk stopped 36 shots to grab the win in goal for the Wild who boosted its season opening record to 1-1-1-0 – all three games played on the road. The Minnesota squad will finally play at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday (Oct. 14) to play the Columbus Blue Jackets but the team returns to the road for another pair the following week.

Corey Crawford handled 29 of 32 in goal for the BlackHawks, who lost in regulation for the first time in five games this season, falling to 3-1-1-0. The Hawks will stay at the United Center for a rematch of last season’s first round playoff disaster when the Nashville Predators come to town.