Frederick Gaudreau and Mats Zuccarello scored 2:03 apart in the second period and Kevin Fiala and Nico Sturm scored 1:24 apart in the third to support a 30-save shutout from Cam Talbot as the visiting Minnesota Wild rolled to a 5-0 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.
Gaudreau, Zuccarello and Fiala each finished with a goal and an assist to help the Wild extend their winning streak to six games.
Minnesota enters the All-Star break on a 10-game point streak (9-0-1), a run that has overlapped with the surge of Fiala, who stretched his point streak to a franchise-best-tying 12 games. Kirill Kaprizov also scored for the Wild.
Chicago took its seventh loss in eight games (1-5-2).
Gaudreau beat Blackhawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with two seconds remaining in the game’s first man-advantage, powering a slap shot from near the right circle at 4:53 of the middle period.
Zuccarello made it 2-0 a short time later, converting a pass from behind the net after Jordan Greenway deftly avoided contact while maneuvering down the right boards.
Chicago’s Philipp Kurashev and Brandon Hagel had scoring chances along the goal line in the final minute of the second period, but the team was unable to get them past Talbot, who posted his first shutout this season and 25th of his career.
Fleury made 25 saves on 30 shots for the Blackhawks before yielding to Collin Delia with 7:58 to go. Delia stopped all five shots he faced.
Playing before a light crowd — influenced in part by a snowstorm in Chicago earlier Wednesday as well as a puck drop of 8:50 p.m. local time — the Blackhawks and Wild skated to a brisk, penalty-free first period. Minnesota outshot Chicago 13-8 in the opening 20 minutes.
Zuccarello has six points in three games against Chicago this season.
–Field Level Media
