The Chicago Blackhawks needed a big road effort on Tuesday night if they were going to get back on track against a team as good as the Minnesota Wild.
This was a much better game for the Hawks, especially being on the road, and they had a 1-0 lead 1:19 into the game thanks to a goal scored by Teuvo Teravainen. In his return to the lineup, skating on a line with Frank Nazar and Connor Bedard, Teravainen made his presence felt right away.
"I thought that it was a good line," head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. "[Bedard] and [Nazar], I haven't seen them play a lot together. I thought they were really good. They showed a lot of skill, they fed each other in good spots, had a lot of chances, and scored with [Teravainen]. I thought that was a real dynamic line."
Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev helped build on the lead with goals of their own to make it 3-0 by the time the game was half over.
The Blackhawks didn't totally collapse, but they allowed the Wild to crawl back. It started with Yakov Trenin scoring his fourth of the season to get them on the board. That 3-1 score held through two periods.
Joel Eriksson Ek scored at 3:57 of the third period on a rebound created by Quinn Hughes. This gave the Wild the confidence they needed to begin their quest for a comeback.
With the goalie pulled, Jared Spurgeon tied it up at 17:58. Spurgeon now has five goals in his last six games against the Blackhawks, and this one was as big as any of them.
No scoring took place in overtime, and Kirill Kaprizov was the only scorer in the shootout, giving the Wild the comeback 4-3 victory.
This was a mostly well-played game by the Blackhawks, but the Wild came back and found a way to win after going down 3-0.
Mistakes and tough puck management in the late stages of the game allowed the Wild to slowly but surely get back in the game, but Minnesota had to work for this win.
The penalty kill stayed hot, but they hardly had any work to do with just one kill. The power play, which is an entirely different story, continued its struggles with no goals on five tries. Jeff Blashill said after the game that he thought it did better at generating quality chances, but there were still no goals to show for it.
"I thought it was better," Blashill said. "We've walked away from other days where I just didn't feel it was dangerous at all. I thought we had a good number of chances [in this game]."
The power play needs a goal badly. If they keep drawing penalties and moving the puck the way they did against the Wild, eventually they will score. Once they get one, the unit as a whole may get back on track. A power play goal on one of their five tries would have likely won this game.
Watch Every Chicago Goal
first shift back? make it a goal 🫡 pic.twitter.com/DImXSG3Idt
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 28, 2026
second goal of the night, courtesy of Ryan Donato 🤝 pic.twitter.com/Ov9HTuMedU
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 28, 2026
another one, 𝘛𝘏𝘈𝘕𝘒 𝘠𝘖𝘜 🛎️ pic.twitter.com/UCs2HVGzbz
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 28, 2026
What’s Next For The Blackhawks?
The Blackhawks are back in action on Thursday night. They have a road date with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Steel City.
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