The Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks are starting their second round NHL playoffs series on Friday night and the game from the United Center starts up at 9:30 pm ET and is streaming with a live stream online from NBC Sports Network on the Live Extra website and has the Hawks looking to continue their Stanley Cup defense in Game 1 of the series.
The Blackhawks had to deal with some adversity on their way to the second round, as they lost their first two games on the road to the St. Louis Blues before coming back to win the series. The team won four games in a row to advance and they were able to dispatch their rivals in the division and now the first place team in the central division is gone as well, as the Wild defeated the Colorado Avalanche after they won the top seed from the division and that was in an exciting Game 7 that went into overtime. The Avalanche had chances in the game, but they couldn't score the winner and after taking the lead near the end of regulation, they allowed the Wild to tie the game and force some extra play. The Wild now advance after a great series from Zach Parise and now the team has to try and beat the defending champions.
The Wild beat out coach Patrick Roy in his first season with the team and funny enough, the last Game 7 loss for Roy as a player was against the Wild and now they are into the second round. Patrick Sharp played very well in the first round series and now the second round schedule has the teams matching up on Friday and then again on Sunday and the Game 2 matchup will be on NBC and that starts up at 3 pm.
The Wild got 10 points from Parise in the series with seven assists to lead the team, while Jonathan Toews had seven points and three goals, while Duncan Keith had five assists. Ilya Bryzgalov and Darcy Kuemper split time for the Wild, while Corey Crawford comes into the series playing very well and he has been hot for the Blackhawks in the previous series while winning the last four games.
The Blackhawks have been able to rest up since finishing the series on Sunday and they got lucky that the Wild series went seven games, as they were able to rest even more. Parise will be the focus for the Hawks defense, while players like Kane and Toews will be expected to step up now that the team has a chance to get back to the western conference finals. The Blackhawks will be looking to start out fast and like the Rangers, the Wild will be tired from playing so much hockey and Game 2 comes on Sunday and if the team grabs those games, it could be domination for the defending champions. The Rangers and Penguins also play Friday and Sunday.
