First the Wild beat up the Blackhawks mascot, then the Wild punched the Blackhawks as a whole square in the gut.
Eight straight wins for the Wild – yes, in the regular season, Blackhawks fans – against Chicago.
"To beat this team eight times in a row is really something. I don't understand how you can do it," said Bruce Boudreau, who lost to Chicago in the conference final with the Ducks in 2015. "I wish I would have had that knowledge a couple years ago."
And you doubted Jason Pominville!
The beloved Pommer came through at the perfect time Sunday night in Chicago by scoring the eventual winner 5:08 into the third period. Marco Scandella's shot caromed off the end wall and landed perfectly on Pominville's stick at the far post. Pominville scored into the open net for his first goal in 20 games (since the last regulation road loss Nov. 29, to be exact) as the Wild rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Chicago Blackhawks.
The 19 games without a goal was Pominville's second-longest drought in his career, but he was coming off a solid road trip in Los Angeles and Anaheim and Boudreau continued to show faith in him.
Tonight, the big goal, which came after Nino Niederreiter and Chris Stewart scored in the second period to answer Patrick Kane's second goal of the game, helped lift the Western Conference- and Central Division-leading (digest that for a second) to a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks to move two points up in the conference and division with FOUR games in hand on Chicago.
Nutty.