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Wild look to hand Blackhawks eighth straight loss

Jan 11, 2008 - 12:53 PM Minnesota (24-17-2) at Chicago (19-20-4) 8:30 pm EST

CHICAGO (Ticker) - Coming off a shootout win against the best team in the NHL, the Minnesota Wild will be looking to take advantage of one of the NHL's worst when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.

The Wild piled up five goals in regulation against the Detroit Red Wings, who entered Thursday's contest as the NHL's stingiest defense. Brian Rolston and Marian Gaborik tallied in the shootout to clinch the victory.

The scoring explosion came on the heels of a two-game losing streak that saw Minnesota manage just two goals, both by Mark Parrish, who curiously had his four-game goal scoring streak snapped against Detroit.

The Blackhawks are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak during which they have been outscored 28-12. They dropped a 3-1 decision to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.

Chicago is suffering through injuries to key players such as rookie center Jonathan Toews and defenseman Brent Sopel, who signed a three-year, $7 million contract extension on Thursday.

Top goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin has lost his last six starts to fall to 15-15-3 on the season and has seen his goals-against average rise to 2.78 during the slide.

The Blackhawks dropped a 1-0 decision to the Wild in their first game of the season on October 4. Pierre-Marc Bouchard tallied the lone goal for Minnesota.