Third period:

Zanon, hit by a Seabrook shot in the first period, just took a Jonathan Toews shot up high from point-blank range. He goes down, but he gets up.

13:33 LEFT. NO OVERTIME PLEASE

4-3 Chicago with 5:20 left. Robert Klinkhammer deflects Brent Seabrook shot.

Now James Sheppard going off for tripping with 4:13 left.

Final. 4-3 Chicago

Second period:

Starting now. Watching that Sheppard goal again, Havlat made a series of great plays starting with the dump to the corner that was more like a pass for Miettinen.

Action already here in the second. Jonathan Toews looks like he’s stung by a hit from behind from Andy Hilbert. Hilbert to the box at 34 seconds.  

2-2 PPG, Patrick Kane at 1:45. Patrick Sharp comes off the wall into the slot. The rebound rolls to the post and Kane jams it in.

Wild back scrambling again. Haven’t been in the offensive zone this period. Long 100 foot passes again. 5:37 in, one shot. Jaime Sifers just got annihilated in a fight by Jacob Dowell. Sifers was off-balanced from the start. The scoreboard showed Sifers, and the Blackhawks fans roared. Sifers is still in the box though.

Harding denies David Bolland on breakaway after Bolland got a step on Miettinen, who was covering up for a pinching Kim Johnsson.

Harding just denied Bolland on a 2-on-1 after Bolland stripped Kim Johnsson of the puck, and now just stone-cold robbed Jon Toews on a breakaway with the glove.

You have no idea how bad the Wild has been this period. They have no had one prolonged stint in the offensive zone. One shot through 10:59.

3-2 Blackhawks, after the Wild finally put together two good shifts in the O-zone, the Wild get caught sleeping in the D-zone. 3-on-2 down low and Colin Fraser scores.

3-3. Martin Havlat, and now getting a mixture of boos and cheers. Came after a Hawks defender coughed it up to Miettinen. 4:44 left.

I know it’s his first game back, but Craig Weller’s roster spot is in trouble. Minus-3 in St. Louis, and tonight, he’s having a very tough one. And the Wild might need that roster spot, and 600K cap space.

3-3 after 2.

First period:

OK, after one rockin’ anthem in front of a very full loud building, we are under way. 

Robbie Earl is in. Clutterbuck, Irmen, Scandella out. 

Miettinen-Sheppard-Havlat;             Johnsson-Schultz

Hilbert-Brodziak-Nolan;                Zanon-Burns

Gillies-Belanger-Weller;              Sifers-Zidlicky

Scott-Smith-Earl

Sounds like Robbie Earl’s in because he’s a hometown kid. Wife and mom are in the crowd.

7:02 left in first, no score. Wild’s “compete factor?” Much better.

1-0 Wild. Just a terrific goal. Miettinen HUSTLES for the puck in the corner, which was a nice change. He hits Marty Havlat in back of the net, who spins away and feeds a driving James Sheppard, who roofs it for a pretty one. Shepp, after going 9 for 14 on draws last night, winning them again tonight.

After Josh Harding’s second turnover behind his net on the same shift, Harding’s late getting back in goal because Troy Brouwer refused to let go of his stick. Puck comes out front, and Greg Zanon takes a full-on Brent Seabrook slap shot from about five feet away. He rolls in pain, but he’s made it to the bench and looks like he’ll suck it up.

This all came after an initial Andy Hilbert center-ice turnover, his second bad one of the night. But Hilbert is working his butt off tonight as he desperately doesn’t want to be released.

2-0 right after Tv timeout. Clean faceoff win by faceoff star Kyle Brodziak. Back to Zanon, swings to Brent  Burns, who blasts it from the point for his first preseason goal.

2-1. Shorthanded goal by Patrick Kane. Just a smooth little deke and through Josh Harding’s legs. Can’t see yet who made the pass, but the Blackhawks player made a great play off the boards from the corner to Kane in the neutral zone. (update) Seabrook made the pass.

2-1 after 1.

————————————————————————- 

Ugh, 7:30 start. Don’t like it.

Live from the press box at the massive United Center, where the Wild, coming off back-to-back big losses, and the winless Blackhawks are about to take the ice. Pressure in the preseason. Gotta love it.

The Wild brought three extra players to Chicago. I believe — not positive, but I believe — the scratches are Danny Irmen, Robbie Earl and Marco Scandella. Irmen and Earl are on waivers, so they may get their walking papers tomorrow depending on any potential injuries suffered tonight. But Chuck Fletcher says it’s no guarantee that just because they’re on waivers that they’re going to the minors, but …

The Blackhawks are hopping a flight to Zurich tonight, so if you don’t hear from me tomorrow, you can safely assume I was a stowaway.

Craig Weller will play his first preseason game since the exhibition opener in St. Louis. Big game for him. As I’ve been mentioning, the Wild is less $800,000 from the cap, so you know they’re going to create some room. Will that be Colton Gillies? And/or could it be Weller? If Weller goes to the minors, the Wild would still have to pay him $600,000, but that 600K would come off the cap.

Everything depends on injuries. By the way, had it looked up, Irmen’s cap hit is $707,900. I think I guessed on one of the blogs yesterday.

Again, because they’re so close to the cap, I can’t see them signing Andy Hilbert unless he’s willing to take a two-way contract and start off in Houston. Again, that all depends on injuries.

What else? Adam Burish had successful reconstructive knee surgery today stemming from that collision with Benoit Pouliot in Minnesota. Poor guy misses six months and doesn’t get to go to Zurich, then Helsinki.

Okie dokie, buh bye for now.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.