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Bliss Out: Wild 4, Blackhawks 3 (OT)

Losing 4-3 in overtime to the Wild is all the rage this season, apparently.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

A late Chicago goal forced overtime on Tuesday night at the United Center before Minnesota scored during the extra session for its third 4-3 OT win over the Blackhawks this season.

An old friend opened the scoring, with Ryan Hartman finding a soft spot in the low slot for this relatively easy goal that made it a 1-0 Wild game about six minutes into the first period:

About 90 seconds later, Marcus Johansson doubled the Minnesota advantage by jumping on this rebound:

Near the middle of the first, Louis Crevier put the Hawks on the board with this missile:

But Minnesota restored its two-goal advantage with 90 seconds left in the first period thanks to a PPG from Vladimir Tarasenko:

The second was much less eventful than the first, but Ryan Greene pulled the Hawks back within one by firing home this loose puck with about five minutes remaining in the period:

Chicago mounted a comeback bid in the third with plenty of scoring attempts before tying the game with 1:40 left thanks to the trio of Artyom Levshunov, Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar:

In overtime, the Wild picked up the extra point after an extremely long period of sustained possession in the Hawks end of the ice, with some heavy legs from Chicago’s defenders helping Mats Zuccarello finding the open space for the winner:

And that was that!

Notes

We’ll start with another look at the tying goal because that’s going to be the primary highlight from this game:

Plenty to like from that clip: the awareness from Levshunov to see the lane available, the quick hands to fire a pass that springs Bedard and Nazar into the zone for a 2-on-1 and then more speed and skill from those latter two that ties the game in a big moment. Bedard’s done plenty this season, but it’s no coincidence that OT is forced when a few of the other youngsters with lofty expectations offer helping hands. It’s just a moment in a game that didn’t have enough of them, but it’s still something. And that remains better than nothing.

Obviously Nazar’s point streak was snapped during Saturday’s shutout but he’s up to 10 points (4 G, 6 A) in his last seven games. Continuing at such a pace for the rest of this season would do wonders to restore the confidence in Nazar that seemed like it was nowhere to be found during the depths of winter.

Let’s summarize the first period with this clip from the opening shift:

In 16:01 of 5-on-5 play during that period, Minnesota had advantages of 26-10 in shot attempts, 15-2 in scoring chances and 10-0 in high-danger chances, all adding up to a NINETY-FOUR PERCENT share of the expected goals. Ninety-freaking-four. I know one of these teams is heading for the playoffs and the other is heading for the draft lottery but … holy shit, man.

The Hawks’ lone goal in the first period was a very brief moment of solid play from the Hawks that featured a couple of neat passes, giving Crevier acres of space to unload on net. But all credit for that goal goes to SCH commenter CjSax, who made this comment at approximately 6:57 p.m. CT, preceding that howitzer of a slapper by about three minutes. Now we know what the Blackhawks players are looking at from the bench on those tablets!

That was a good moment from Crevier which resulted in a goal, and he absolutely needs to use that shot more often because it can be a useful weapon when deployed. But he also had large parts in two of the goals Minnesota scored. On that Johansson goal, Crevier’s standing off to the side of Knight covering no one and taking away zero parts of the ice with his stick at his waist. Knight’s rebound control leaves plenty to be desired, but Crevier could help his goalie out by putting his stick down, at a very minimum, and perhaps that rebound never reaches Johansson.

Then, second before the Wild PPG:

That’s Crevier in the bottom right corner, finishing a hit along the boards at the top of the faceoff dot. The Hawks have been preaching aggression on the PK but this is too much of it, because a pass back to Faber at the point is followed by a pass to Johansson at the dot, and the Wild basically have a 3-on-1 with Vlasic as the lone Hawk defender remaining. Note Crevier racing back into position at the bottom of the screengrab below, although it’s already far too late:

Excuse the poor quality but watch this clip and then ask yourself how many forwards on the Hawks have the speed and skill and vision to make all of this happen.

Watch Lardis be a one-man breakout.

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— Second City Hockey (@secondcityhockey.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 8:13 PM

Lardis skated only 10:24 in this game, which was more than the 8:44 he had against VGK on Saturday but still feels light. We’ll be saying this until we’re collectively blue in the face but what does it hurt to give him some more top-six minutes over the final month of a season with no stakes involved?

Jeff Blashill said after the game that he thought Kaiser was “excellent.” The scorecard below fervently agrees. He did have favorable zone starts, beginning in the offensive zone at a team-high rate of 85.71 percent. But with him on the ice, Chicago was above water in every 5-on-5 possession stat worth mentioning: 18-14 in shot attempts, 10-6 in shots on goal and 4-3 in scoring chances, all for a team-best 75.22 percent share of expected goals with him on the ice. Also two Hawks goals were scored without any allowed. Strong evening for No. 44 in his return from injury.

On one hand, the Blackhawks didn’t go to bed after an abysmal start and played well enough in the second and third periods to force overtime, with a trio of their younger players teaming up for a big moment. On the other hand, it’s fair to suggest that Minnesota may have throttled down over the final 40 minutes after such a dominant opening 20. It’s hard to call it an overall positive night because of the massive variations in Chicago’s performance throughout the game, but it was better than whatever transpired in Vegas on Saturday night. So … progress? Guess we’ll know for sure after Thursday’s game.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Marcus Johansson (MIN) — 1 goal, 2 assists
  2. Brock Faber (MIN) — 3 assists
  3. Frank Nazar (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

These two teams meet again on Thursday, with the scene shifting to Minnesota for a 6:30 p.m. puck drop.

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