Wild continue to thrive on the road, holding off Blackhawks 4-2 in Chicago

The Wild found relief from their rut with their most tried-and-true remedy: playing on the road.

Like clockwork, they left St. Paul and immediately improved, using a strong start to hold off the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Sunday night at United Center for just their second victory in seven games.

“A step in the right direction in a multitude of areas,” coach John Hynes told reporters in Chicago, “and now we gotta keep building on it.”

Filip Gustavsson’s 18 saves and Marcus Foligno’s empty-netter preserved earlier goals from captain Jared Spurgeon, Frederick Gaudreau and Joel Eriksson Ek to continue the Wild’s knack for spoiling home-ice advantage; their 18-5-3 road record leads the NHL.

In fairness, Chicago is second-to-last in the league and had just traded one of its better players in Taylor Hall two days earlier as part of a blockbuster, three-team trade with Colorado and Carolina.

But after getting swept on their last homestand during two uncharacteristic losses, including a 5-4 letdown to the Calgary Flames on Saturday night to stay out of sync since early January, the Wild needed to turn the page. The schedule worked in their favor, beginning a stretch of five games in a row as the visitor.

“No one in this room or in the organization really has been happy with how it’s went the last two, three weeks,” defenseman Jake Middleton said, “and this is the start of something.”

The Wild were better from the get-go, establishing their forecheck and throwing pucks on net.

On their seventh try, they finally connected 5 minutes, 43 seconds into the first period when Spurgeon eluded Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek’s blocker after a 4-on-2 rush for the Wild. Marco Rossi factored into the play to pick up an assist on four straight Wild goals, tying a team record for the second time this season.

Next up, Gaudreau received a fortuitous bounce for his second goal in as many games because his throw to the middle clipped the stick of Chicago’s Ryan Donato and slipped by Mrazek at 7:17.

Overall, the Wild had 11 shots in the first compared with one for Chicago, and they padded their lead during the second period on the power play to go 1-for-3.

During the tail-end of a four-minute penalty against Chicago captain Nick Foligno, who was dinged for holding and unsportsmanlike conduct after insinuating that the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov dove, Eriksson Ek tipped a Kaprizov feed behind Mrazek (24 saves) at 10:45 for goals in consecutive games.

“It’s more to our identity, how we want to play,” said winger Matt Boldy, who had three assists. “Be stingy. Be hard to get in the zone and obviously close down and get pucks out. So, a step in the right direction for sure.”

The five shots the Blackhawks tested the Wild with through two periods tied the 2001-02 Columbus Blue Jackets for the fewest against the Wild in franchise history, but Chicago almost caught up to the Wild in the third.

After Middleton, who was stung by an Alec Martinez shot early in the second but continued to play, was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking, Seth Jones wrecked Gustavsson’s shutout bid with a top-shelf wrister 56 seconds into the period.

Then the Blackhawks scored again at 4:16 when Frank Nazar got on the end of a rebound of an Ethan Del Mastro shot during 4-on-4 action.

With momentum on its side, Chicago went back to the power play, and that’s where Gustavsson came up clutch to fend off the mounting pressure.

Not until Foligno hurled the puck into an empty net with 1:42 to go, though, were the Wild in the clear after another Chicago power play (1-for-3). Foligno also has two goals in his past two games, and he added an assist.

“We stood tall,” Gustavsson said. “We didn’t panic. They got two quick goals, and we just weathered the storm there and just went back to what we wanted to play.”

BOXSCORE: Wild 4, Chicago 2

NHL standings

Gustavsson, who was winless in his previous five starts while giving up 23 goals, earned a much-needed bounce-back victory for his 61st career win with the Wild to move into fifth place, and the lineup in front of him was challenged to reset.

Hynes benched forward Yakov Trenin and defenseman Declan Chisholm, with Devin Shore and Travis Dermott drawing in. This was the first time Trenin, who signed a four-year, $14 million last summer as the Wild’s most prized free-agent pickup, was a healthy scratch.

Hynes noted the identity the team needs from Chisholm has slipped and mentioned Trenin has to be “harder on pucks in the offensive zone, using his size and strength, more physicality to his game, impacting the game as a power forward.”

Message received, with the rest of the Wild responding.

“We showed our cards a little bit to the coaches,” Gustavsson said, “how good we can play and what we should expect from each other moving forward.”