Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist and Jesper Wallstedt made 24 saves for his first career victory and shutout as the visiting Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0 on Sunday.
Minnesota (37-30-10, 83 points) moved within nine points of the Nashville Predators for the final Western Conference wild-card spot with five games remaining. Nashville was set to play later Sunday.
Wallstedt, 21, kept the Wild’s flickering postseason aspirations intact with a bounce-back effort from his NHL debut, a 7-2 loss at Dallas on Jan. 10.
Recently recalled from Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Iowa, Wallstedt shut down a Blackhawks team that had struck for 16 goals in its past four victories, including three during Saturday’s home win against the West-leading Dallas Stars.
Chicago (23-49-5, 51 points) couldn’t slow Minnesota’s hottest player nor generate much of an attack. The Wild outshot the Blackhawks 37-24.
Kaprizov continued his sizzling stretch run while reaching the 40-goal mark for the third successive season. He opened the scoring with a power-play goal 1:06 into the second period with a shot from the right circle that trickled past Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom.
He capped the scoring at 8:10 of the third period, burying a drop pass from Brock Faber, and nearly tallied his fourth hat trick of the season later in the period.
Marco Rossi and Frederick Gaudreau also scored second-period goals for Minnesota. Rossi got past Blackhawks defenseman Nikita Zaitsev to convert a back-door opportunity. Gaudreau extended the Wild lead to 3-0 when he tipped in a shot from the point at 18:27 of the second.
Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic led the Blackhawks with three shots on goal apiece. Soderblom made 33 saves.
Minnesota swept the season series from Chicago, adding Sunday’s victory to a 4-1 home win on Dec. 3 and a 2-1 road win on Feb. 7.
Ryan Hartman returned for Minnesota after serving a three-game suspension.
Wallstedt became the first goaltender in Wild franchise history to register a shutout for his first career win.
–Field Level Media
