NEW YORK: Left winger Brandon Saad scored two goals with centre and team captain Jonathan Toews and left winger Bryan Bickell adding solo tallies as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Minnesota Wild in Game Two of their Western Conference semifinal series yesterday in Chicago.
The defending Stanley Cup champions take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which shifts to Minnesota for Game Three on Tuesday and Game Four on Friday. If necessary, Game Five will be in Chicago next Sunday.
Blackhawks right winger Marian Hossa had a great breakaway against Wild goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, but his shot bounced off the right side pipe of the net. Toews pounced on the puck and slapped a backhand and off-balance shot into the Wild net at 11:02 of the first period, giving Chicago a 1-0 lead. It was Toews’ fourth goal of the playoffs.
Chicago went up 2-0 at 19:04 of the second period when Saad scored his first goal of the playoffs.
Minnesota got on the board early in the third period when center Cody McCormick scored his first points of the playoffs on a feed in front of Chicago’s net by defenseman Clayton Stoner.
In other match, the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled even at one game apiece in their best-of-seven series against the New York Rangers with a shutout victory.
The Penguins got a second period goal by defenceman Kris Letang, a power-play goal by forward Jussi Jokinen late in the third and an empty-netter by centre Evgeni Malkin to seal the win.
Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves for his seventh career playoff shutout.
The game got off to a rocky start for the Penguins, as they had to kill three Rangers power plays in the first eight minutes.
The Penguins’ penalty killers were stout, but the New York power play was also inept, mustering only two shots in the three opportunities. Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves, many of them magnificent. Game Three is set for tonight. REUTERS
