The Minnesota Wild trails its best-of-seven playoff series against Chicago two games to none after losing to the Blackhawks, 5-2 Friday night.
Chicago dominated the first period, spending the majority of the 20 minutes in the Wild’s zone, peppering goaltender Josh Harding with shots. Harding, however, stood tall, allowing one goal.
That goal was netted by Michael Frolik. Frolik would add another just 49 seconds into the second period to give the home team a commanding 2-0 lead. The second was shorthanded, just seconds after Minnesota went on a key power play.
While Chicago continued to dominate the period, they weren’t able to get another puck past Harding. Minnesota relieved some of the pressure when Devin Setoguchi’s wrist shot found a way past Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford at 17:57 of the period.
The Wild was outshot 17-7 in the first period before outshooting Chicago 15-14 in the second period.
But it was Chicago with another quick strike in the third when Patrick Sharp scored. Sharp stole the puck from Wild rookie Jonas Brodin on the side of the net and flipped it past Harding for a 3-1 lead.
Sharp scored again at 14:08 of the third on a sweet pass from Patrick Kane out of the slot. Sharp was waiting to Harding’s right and scored on an open net.
The Wild cut the lead to 4-2 when Marco Scandella fired a shot through traffic past Crawford, but it was too little, too late.
Bryan Bickell, who scored the overtime winner in Game 1, scored an empty net goal in the final minute of play.
Chicago ended the game with 47 shots on goal — 19 more than Minnesota.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is back in Minnesota Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
