Kane, Crawford power Blackhawks past Wild for 3-0 series lead
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}St. Paul, MN (SportsNetwork.com) - Patrick Kane scored the game's lone goal and Corey Crawford turned aside all 30 shots he faced to lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a 1-0 victory over the Minnesota Wild for a 3-0 series stranglehold in the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday.
Kane scored for the fourth straight game and Crawford notched his fourth career postseason shutout for the Blackhawks, who won their first Game 3 on the road since May 5, 2010 against Vancouver, ending a seven-game skid.
"They go hard to the net and he really held his ground. He was very effective with his rebound control as well," Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said of Crawford. "A big night for him and for us."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Devan Dubnyk's solid 21-save effort was not enough for the Wild, who had a string of five consecutive Game 3 wins come to an end.
"All we can do now is go win a hockey game," said Dubnyk. "We have to win on Thursday."
Chicago will look to complete the series sweep Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kane opened the scoring on the power play with 5:54 left in the first period. After Patrick Sharp carried up the right wing, Andrew Shaw entered the offensive zone and swatted the puck to the left circle, where Kane slid a low wrister through Dubnyk's pads.
The Wild outshot the Blackhawks by a 12-9 margin during the middle stanza and provided several quality chances, but failed to crack the scoreboard.
"Crawford is a star against us. He's (Martin) Brodeur, he's Roy, he's everybody against us," Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo said. "We have to find a way to solve that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Over eight minutes into the frame, Mikko Koivu took the puck behind the net and sent to Nino Niederreiter, who had his shot in front stopped. With under four minutes left, Mikael Granlund raced in on a breakaway, but had his wrister turned aside with a blocker stop.
Brad Richards nearly made it a two-goal game early in the third, but his one- timer from the slot rang off the crossbar.
Jason Pominville's shot trickled through a scrum in front of the crease close to the midway point of the final period, but Crawford somehow located it and extended to knock it away with his blocker.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dubnyk was pulled in favor of an extra attacker with 1:28 to play, but the Wild were unable to light the lamp.
Minnesota got off to a quick start as Matt Cooke tested Crawford just two minutes into the game with a forehand-backhand move, but the Chicago netminder calmly turned aside Cooke's offering with a pad save.
Dubnyk was up to the task at the other end, disrupting Jonathan Toews' backhand attempt in tight moments later.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Game Notes
Kane is the second Chicago player in the last 23 years to score in Games 1, 2 and 3 of a playoff series, joining Dustin Byfuglien, who did so during the 2010 Western Conference finals against San Jose ... The Blackhawks hold a 3-0 lead for the first time since sweeping the Sharks in the aforementioned series ... Crawford improved to 11-3 against the Wild in the playoffs, registered his first postseason shutout since a 34-save performance against St. Louis on Apr. 21, 2014 and passed Ed Belfour for sole possession of second in franchise history with 36 career playoff wins ...Kane also scored in four straight playoff games from April 24-May 3, 2010 ... Minnesota was without forward Chris Stewart, who suffered an upper-body injury in Game 2.