A torrid start. A voracious comeback. Lockdown goaltending. Madness in the Madhouse.
And that was in just 60 minutes of ice time. If this keeps up, Wild and Blackhawks fans will be treated to somewhere in the neighborhood of 420 more. Twin Cities heart doctors best remain on standby.
No Minnesota player may ever take part in a more tightly contested 4-3 loss than the one Chicago administered Friday night at the United Center. After falling behind 3-0 in the first, the Wild stormed back with a three-goal period of their own.
But winger Teuvo Teravainen's first career playoff marker, at 19:01 of the second period, allowed the Wild's perennial postseason nemesis to survive Game 1 of the teams' second consecutive Western Conference semifinals clash.
"If you want to ask, we're not rattled right now," Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. "It was obviously disappointing to lose a game and puts a lot of emphasis on the next one."
Coming in, the chatter around the Land of 10,000 Lakes -- including at a pep rally at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis -- centered on a more experienced, deeper-than-ever Wild (4-3 this postseason) group that matches up better with Chicago than the two previous ones, whose seasons were terminated by Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane, Corey Crawford and Partners. Young forward Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter are all grown up. Jordan Leopold and Matt Dumba provide a solid third defensive pair. And some goalie named Devan has brought stability to a position where the Wild have needed it for years.
Twenty minutes into Friday's 8:30 p.m. tilt, the conversation was over. Twenty more, and it had been resurrected, only to wilt in a matter of moments. So goes the omnipresent volatility of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Blackhawks (5-2) scored three goals on their first seven shots in the first period. Minnesota countered with three on its first nine the next frame. After Teravainen threw a cushy shot past Devan Dubnyk -- who didn't have his best night, surrendering four goals on 35 shots -- from behind the left boards with less than a minute left in the second, both netminders shut the door repeatedly in the third. The Wild had their chances at another equalizer, including a whiff by Jason Pominville in the immediate direction of a wide-open net.
"It sucks," defenseman Ryan Suter said, "but you've got to leave it behind you."
Chicago's relentless forecheck led to first-period goals from Brandon Saad (who took a pass from Marian Hossa, worked his way past Suter and beat Dubnyk glove side 1:15 in), Patrick Kane (a point-blank one-timer off a Brad Richards setup, 13:11) and Marcus Kruger (backhanded rebound of an Andrew Shaw shot, 15:15). For the Wild, it was the kind of contest that would cause an NHL '15 enthusiast in franchise mode to immediately hit "reset."
Sometime during the first intermission, Minnesota did.
Jason Zucker, who had a team-high-tying three goals during five regular-season matchups with Chicago, got it started when he tipped home a nifty no-look pass from Thomas Vanek. The Wild's main offseason addition had an even better helper when he shuffled the puck backward to Zach Parise in front of Crawford and Minnesota's leading playoff scorer buried it on the power play -- 3-2, 5:07 into the second.
Parise's dogged work to keep the puck in the offensive zone 4 1/2 minutes later resulted in a Mikael Granlund equalizer from the slot.
Three goals in 8 minutes, 9 seconds.
But the tie would last only 10 minutes. Vanek declined to play a puck that would've resulted in a hand pass, resulting in the Chicago rush that led to Teravainen's winner.
"Absolutely, in hindsight, we'd like to touch that puck," Yeo said.
Dubnyk stopped all 15 shots he saw in the third. Crawford was similarly steady, thwarting eight looks from the Wild and finishing with 30 saves.
"I didn't do (my job) there and it cost me," said Dubnyk, who bounced back from a six-goal meltdown in Game 4 against St. Louis to stop 66 of 68 shots during the final two games of that first-round series. "Certainly disappointing. Got to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Parise and Vanek had two points apiece.
It was an expectedly even matchup with a slew of unexpected turns. Ultimately, Minnesota is in a difficult hole. Chicago has a 24-9 best-of-seven series record when it wins the first game; when it loses the opener, Minnesota is 2-5 in such playoff bouts.
But there's a lot left of this one. Keep the popcorn handy.
THREE STARS
1. Teuvo Teravainen, RW, Blackhawks: In a game where the third and fourth forward groupings shined, Chicago's third-line right winger from Helsinki, Finland pumped life back into a previously-subdued crowd of 21,851. It was his only shot of the night, but after Keith pinched in along the boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone, Teravainen lifted a shot past Dubnyk's glove the long, 6-foot-6 goalie probably should've tracked and reached.
2. Zach Parise, LW, Wild: Parise notched his 18th career multi-playoff game and third this postseason. His goal moved him past Marian Gaborik for the all-time franchise lead in playoff point production. He now leads Minnesota with four goals, five assists and nine points in these playoffs.
3. Duncan Keith, D, Blackhawks: As noted, it was Keith's veteran move that helped maintain possession and set up Teravainen's game-winner. Keith earned an assist on the play and also earned the secondary helper on Kruger's goal late in the first period.
Seen: Wild defensemen on their heels, especially the top pairing of Suter and Jonas Brodin. Those two were on the ice for two of Chicago's first three goals, and Marco Scandella got completely turned around by Richards as he skated into the zone and slid the puck over to Kane for his one-timer.
Said: "We said we were looking for things to be different in this series. Well, that's an opportunity for us to prove that something's different here, that we can get better in our game. I think that's typically what we do." -- Yeo
Next: Game 2 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Sunday back at the United Center. Minnesota still hasn't ever won at Chicago in the postseason (0-7).
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