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CHICAGO -- Aside from the final score, the Minnesota Wild achieved Tuesday much of what they had hoped in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Wild slowed the Blackhawks' offensive attack, got in the way of their shots and forced a tight one-goal game which was only decided by the Blackhawks in the final five minutes of overtime.

The Wild's game plan was no surprise to the Blackhawks. They assumed the Wild would play in such a fashion and expect to see more of it the rest of the series. But the Blackhawks hope to put some more pucks past Wild goaltenders in Game 2 and beyond.

"It goes back -- Minnesota has always defended the front of their net extremely well," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said on Wednesday. "They collapse like a lot of teams in our league do. They protect that slot area. It's tough to penetrate with direct plays. Indirect plays off the goalie is the best way to get that guy the puck in the slot, so hopefully we get more pucks and more bodies in traffic at the net and look to get second and third opportunities. But the clean looks through the middle of the ice at their end is going to be hard to find."

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ESPN NHL analyst Barry Melrose chats about the majesty of the Stanley Cup, discusses the start of this season's playoffs, Sidney Crosby's health and explains why he believes the Blackhawks and Penguins will cruise to the Stanley Cup Finals.



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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks are hopeful their worst period of playoff hockey is already behind them.

The top-seeded Blackhawks endured a nightmarish first period in Game 1 of their first-round series with the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. The Blackhawks allowed the Wild to score on their first shot of the game and had more of their shots blocked (seven) than they got through to the net (six) in the first period.

The Blackhawks were put in an unfamiliar spot -- trailing after one period. They were down after one period in just nine games during the regular season.

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Blues 2, Kings 1 F/OT (Blues lead 1-0)
* Alexander Steen (STL): 4th player since 1990 with postseason short-handed goal in OT (Source: Elias Sports Bureau)
* Alexander Steen (STL): 2nd career OT goal (1st in postseason)
* Alexander Steen (STL): scored both goals in game (didn't have a multi-goal game this season)
* STL: snap 8-game losing streak vs LA dating back to last season (reg. season and postseason)
* Justin Williams (LA): scored game-tying goal with 32 seconds left in game
* LA: was 4-0 in OT in last year's postseason
* LA: 1st defending champ to lose 1st postseason game in OT since Red Wings on April 10, 2003
FROM ELIAS:
Shorthanded Goals In Overtime
Stanley Cup Playoffs Since 1990
Team
Tue. Alexander Steen Blues
2006 Fernando Pisani Oilers
2006 Jason Pominville Sabres
1990 Tony Granato Kings

Ducks 3, Red Wings 1 (Ducks lead series 1-0)
* Teemu Selanne (ANA): 42nd career playoff goal (7th among active players); 11th career GW playoff goal (T-6th most among active players)
* Ducks: 2-4 on power play (led Western Conference in power-play pct during regular season)
* Jonas Hiller (ANA): 21 saves on 22 shots (fewest shots faced, fewest saves in a playoff game in his career)
* Red Wings: lost playoff opener for 2nd straight year (lost in 5 games in 1st round last year)
FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: Teemu Selanne broke a 1-1 tie with a power play goal early in the third period and the Ducks went on to take a 3-1 victory over the Red Wings in Game One. The 42-year-old Selanne became the second-oldest player ever to score a game-winning goal in the NHL playoffs; Mark Recchi was 43 when he was credited with the game-winning goal in the Bruins’ 8-1 victory over the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final two years ago. (Recchi scored early in the second period of that game, making the score 2-0, and was credited with the game-winning goal in a game in which Boston had a 5-0 lead at the time that Vancouver scored in the third period.)

Blackhawks 2, Wild 1 (Blackhawks lead series 1-0)
* Bryan Bickell (CHI): game-winning goal in OT (2nd career OT goal in postseason, has 0 career in regular season)
* Marian Hossa (CHI): 37th career playoff goal (tied for 100th most all-time with Wendel Clark, Simon Gagne and Larry Murphy)
* Blackhawks: 1st series lead since winning Stanley Cup in 2010
* Cal Clutterbuck (MIN): 1st career playoff goal
FROM THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU: The Blackhawks defeated the Wild, 2-1, in their playoff opener, when Bryan Bickell scored 16:35 into overtime. Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville was behind the bench in a Stanley Cup game for the 140th time in his career, while Minnesota’s Mike Yeo was coaching in his first NHL postseason game. The 139-game difference in playoff experience between the two head coaches is the largest in an NHL postseason series since the 2002 Stanley Cup Final, when Detroit’s Scotty Bowman (348 games of playoff experience entering the series) faced Carolina’s Paul Maurice (30 games); Bowman and the Red Wings won that series in five games.

CHICAGO -- Injured Chicago Blackhawks forward Dave Bolland and goaltender Ray Emery are questionable for Game 2 Friday of their first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild. Neither played in Game 1 Tuesday, when the Blackhawks defeated the Wild 2-1 in overtime.

"I don't know about Game 2, but hopefully they will be skating (Thursday)," said coach Joel Quenneville, whose team did not practice on Wednesday. "We're hopeful on that. I don't want to comment too much on Friday right now on them."

Bolland has missed four consecutive games due to a lower-body injury. He suffered the injury against the Vancouver Canucks on April 22. He missed 13 games during season due to various injuries. He had seven goals and seven assists in 35 games in the regular season.

Emery has missed three consecutive games with a lower-body injury. He suffered the injury against the Edmonton Oilers on April 24. He is 17-1-0 with a 1.94 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage this season.

Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford made 26 saves in Chicago's Game 1 victory, and he was backed up by Henrik Karlsson, who was recently recalled from the AHL's Rockford IceHogs.

The NHL announced Wednesday the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins will play at Soldier Field on March 1, 2014.

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CHICAGO -- When Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom left the ice with an injury before the game started, Chicago Blackhawks fans probably expected an easy win over backup goalie Josh Harding.

Maybe the Blackhawks did, too.

The last time the Hawks faced Harding on Jan. 30, he was pulled from the game after two goals in the first seven minutes. Harding, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the fall, hasn't started a game since then, and played only twice.

But this is the playoffs, after all, and in the NHL it's often hard to tell the seeds apart, let alone the dominant goaltenders (read: Corey Crawford) from the benchwarmers.

That's why everyone loves the Stanley Cup playoffs. The game begins with a goalie change and ends with Bryan Bickell celebrating an overtime goal.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t pleased with forward Bryan Bickell after a shift during the third period Tuesday, and Bickell heard all about it when he returned to the bench.

Bickell sat there and accepted the criticism. He knew he’d get another chance on the ice and planned to redeem himself.

“I know Q wasn’t happy with me on one shift in the third and gave me a little wrist slap, but he threw me back out there,” Bickell said. “He has confidence in our line and knows what we can do.”

Bickell and the third line rewarded that confidence by putting together the game-winning goal, which was finished by Bickell, to defeat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in overtime in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford couldn’t have begun the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs any worse.

The first shot the Minnesota Wild took on Crawford in Game 1 of their first-round series bypassed him and found the inside of the net on Tuesday. Crawford saw the play unfold and was in position to stop the puck, but somewhere between the Wild’s Cal Clutterbuck shooting it and the lamp being lit, Crawford lost sight of the puck.

Crawford’s focus was undoubtedly shaken.

“It was definitely a battle,” Crawford said. “It’s not the way you want to start a game. I can’t remember what time it was on the clock when I got that shot. I wasn’t getting any work. I just tried to get myself in the game after that. … I saw the release. I just kind of lost the puck halfway. Whatever, it’s over. It happened. I just tried to regroup as quick as possible.”

A season ago, the early goal might have foreshadowed a long, difficult game for Crawford. But this season, he learned to keep his focus and not let any one goal affect him. It stuck to that blueprint again on Tuesday.

Crawford bounced back after Clutterbuck’s goal and didn’t allow the Wild to beat him again over the game’s final 70-plus minutes. He stopped the Wild’s next 26 shots and helped the Blackhawks to a 2-1 overtime win in Game 1.

“I was able to regroup pretty good,” Crawford said. “The guys were behind me, encouraging me.”

The Blackhawks’ confidence in Crawford and his own confidence in himself appeared to grow as the game progressed. The Wild didn’t have as many shot attempts as the Blackhawks did (37-27), but the Wild compiled a lot of quality ones, and Crawford was there to deny each one.

In overtime, Wild forward Zach Parise had one of the game’s best attempts, a wide-open look from the slot. Crawford knocked the shot away with his blocker, and the puck skipped just past the left of the net.

“He’s got a quick release,” Crawford said. “I just tried to read it as good as I could and just barely got enough of it.”

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was impressed by the save and how Crawford handled the early adversity, but it was nothing Quenneville wasn’t accustomed to seeing in the regular season.

“I thought he stayed with it,” Quenneville said. “He had a key save right before our score. He made a big save with a guy in the slot. He seemed big and he got comfortable. I liked the response. That’s kind of the way he played all year.”

CHICAGO -- Here’s a quick look at the Chicago Blackhawks' 2-1 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild at the United Center on Tuesday in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

How it happened: Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell continued to be a playoff star as he scored the game-winner in overtime off a pass from Viktor Stalberg. It was Bickell’s fifth playoff goal in the past three seasons. The eighth-seeded Wild initially shocked the sold-out Blackhawks crowd by scoring on their first shot of the game. The Wild went ahead 1-0 when Cal Clutterbuck beat Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford from the left circle at 4:48 of the first period. Crawford bounced back from the early goal and stopped the Wild’s next 26 shots. The Blackhawks evened the game at 1-1 when Patrick Kane dished the puck off to Marian Hossa on the rush, and Hossa finished from the left circle at 2:06 of the second period. Wild goaltender Josh Harding replaced Niklas Backstrom as the team’s starter just before the game. Harding, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this year, played in five games during the regular season. He made 36 saves.

Player of the game: Harding stepped up in a difficult situation. He hadn’t started since Jan. 30 and found out just before Tuesday’s game he was going to have to replace Backstrom. In his last start, which also happened to be against the Blackhawks, he allowed two goals on four shots and was pulled from the game.

What it means: The Blackhawks and Wild played in some tight games during the regular season, and that carried over into their first game of the playoffs. Two of the teams’ three regular-season games were decided by one goal. Both were also two of the top teams in the league in one-goal games. The Blackhawks were 19-3-5 in one-goal games in the regular season, and the Wild were 13-5-3. The Wild proved they’re not going to allow the Blackhawks to roll through the first round. The Wild kept themselves in the game most of the night by getting in the way of the Blackhawks’ shots. The Wild blocked 21 shots. The Blackhawks played in five overtime games in the first round last season and two in the opening round in 2011. Eight of the Blackhawks’ last nine playoff games dating back to 2011 have gone to overtime.

What’s next: Game 2 of the series will be held in Chicago on Friday. The series will then move to Minnesota for the following two games.

Barry Melrose previews the Blackhawks' first-round series against the Wild -- a team he doesn't think will put up much of a fight.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Bryan Bickell tweeted at 6:30 a.m Tuesday, "This is where boys turn into men playoff time. #gameone."

Bickell was sharing with his 29,000-plus followers his excitement for Tuesday's Game 1 of the Blackhawks-Minnesota Wild series, but his tweet was also in a way a message to himself. Bickell has excelled in the playoffs the past two seasons, and he's out to do so again this year.

Bickell has scored as many goals as any Blackhawks player in the playoffs in the past two seasons. With four goals, he's tied for the team lead with Michael Frolik, Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp. Bickell scored two goals in six games in the 2012 playoffs and had two goals and two assists in seven games in the 2011 playoffs.

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CHICAGO -- Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo had no problem stating his game plan to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks in their first-round series that begins on Tuesday, but he understands the execution isn't as easy.

"It's pretty simple, we've got to be great at every aspect of our game, every player of our team," Yeo said after Tuesday's morning skate at the United Center. "The depth of their lineup, the strength of their game in all situations, there's no room for error on our part. That's obviously a tough challenge, but at the same time we like to think that when we've been sort of faced with those situations and when we've gone up against teams like that, it's helped to sharpen our focus, and we felt we've performed well in those situations."

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Good To Be President? The Stanley Cup playoffs begin Tuesday night with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Blackhawks hosting the Wild. But Chicago should beware. Three of the last four Presidents’ Trophy winners have lost in the first round (conference quarterfinals), and only one of the last nine went on to win the Stanley Cup (Detroit in 2008).

Can You Repeat That? The Kings begin their quest to become the first repeat Stanley Cup champion since the Red Wings in 1997 & 1998. The 13-season drought without a repeat winner in the NHL is the third-longest of its kind among the four major professional sports. The NBA had an 18-season drought from 1970-87, while MLB had a 14-season drought from 1979-92.

CHICAGO -- Minnesota Wild forward Jason Pominville will not play against the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of their first-round series on Tuesday.

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