The Chicago Blackhawks are on the verge of advancing in the playoffs for the first time since winning the championship in 2010, being one win away from defeating the Minnesota Wild. They'll look to get the job done Thursday night at 9:30 pm ET.
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Via ESPN:
They're not exactly breathing easy, and they insist the Wild haven't seen their best shot.
"You look at some teams that just battled their way into the playoffs in the last 10, 15 regular-season games or so, they come right into it," Jonathan Toews said. "You see the pace. You see the physicality in a lot of those other series. We're getting better one game at a time, but we need to start bringing that now."
The Blackhawks set the pace all season, getting off to a record start and capturing the Presidents' Trophy for leading the league in points. Now, they're in position to knock off Minnesota after losing to Vancouver and Phoenix in the first round the past two years.
They've killed every power play. Their defense has come up big with Corey Crawford playing well in net after letting in some soft goals against the Coyotes last year, and if that's not enough, consider this.
The Wild's top two goalies are banged up. Niklas Backstrom was injured warming up before Game 1, thrusting Josh Harding into the lineup.
Now, Harding's hurt, too. His legs got straddled around the left post when Toews landed on top of him in a collision in the crease in the with about four minutes left in the first period of Game 4 on Tuesday.
He got up gingerly and finished out the period, shaking his left leg several times and testing it with a slow skate behind the net. The Wild went with backup Darcy Kuemper to start the second period, and it's not clear who will be in goal for them on Thursday.
"We like to keep the other team guessing, so we're not only going to not tell them who our starting goalie is, we won't tell them who our backup goalie is," coach Mike Yeo said. "Really leave them in the dark."
