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Toews, Blackhawks beat Wild in shootout

Dec 15, 2011 - 4:11 AM St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Jonathan Toews scored the winner in the shootout as the Chicago Blackhawks took a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild.

Toews had a goal and an assist while Michael Frolik and Marian Hossa also scored for the Blackhawks, who have won three straight and five of six. Ray Emery made 27 saves for the win.

"We got some breaks early, then gave them back later," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville. "Still, I thought for the most part we played a good game and came out of here with two points."

Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu and Kyle Brodziak all had goals for the Wild, who have dropped their past two games. Niklas Backstrom stopped 28 shots in the loss.

"Getting a point is good, but getting two is better and that's what we want to do every night when we're out there," said Cullen. "We can't get down on ourselves for this one, we played a good game, just a few bad plays."

After Cullen was stopped on the first attempt, Toews buried a wrister to give Chicago the shootout lead. Dany Heatley then lost the puck while making a move and Patrick Kane sealed the win when he stopped in the low slot and made several stickhandling moves before slamming it in on the forehand.

Chicago scored on the power play 9:19 into the second when Hossa slammed in a loose puck in front of the net and the team took a 2-0 lead 1:29 later as Frolik redirected home a Marcus Kruger pass from the left side.

Minnesota, though, got one back at the 13:10 mark of the second when Brodziak took a feed in the slot and slid over to the left to get Emery out of position before burying it.

A 2-on-1 break 2 1/2 minutes later saw Cullen and Cal Clutterbuck work a give- and-go with Cullen finishing it off to tie the game.

Toews gave Chicago a 3-2 lead 6:54 into the third when he powered his way to the front from the right boards and wristed it into the left corner.

However, with an extra attacker due to a delayed penalty to Chicago, the Wild were able to take the lead as Koivu's one-timer from the left circle beat Emery with 5:04 to play in regulation.

Game Notes

The Wild host the Islanders on Saturday...Chicago hosts Anaheim on Friday...Chicago took three of four from Minnesota the past two seasons...Minnesota went 0-for-2 on the power play while Chicago was 1-for-2.