The Chicago Blackhawks put up a good fight against a great team

The Chicago Blackhawks have been a bit surprising so far to start this season. They had a four-game winning streak that kept them from coming out of the gate in an embarrassing fashion. They still might end near the bottom of the standings but it will be less ugly now.

There has been some exciting hockey to watch with them over the last few weeks and that continued against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. They hosted them at the United Center in what promised to be a very fun game between two Central Division foes.

The game started off okay as Jake McCabe scored his first goal of the season to give them a 1-0 lead. From there, however, Matt Boldy and Mason Shaw scored to give the Wild a 2-1 lead, and looked like they might run away from there.

Jonathan Toews’ revenge tour continued, however, as he scored his fifth of the season to tie the game at two. Then, Andreas Athanasiou scored a highlight reel goal to give Chicago a 3-2 lead. That goal will go down as a goal of the year candidate.

The Chicago Blackhawks put up a good fight against a much better team.

Unfortunately, that lead would only last for 17 seconds as Matt Boldy scored his second of the game right after the Athanasiou goal so they were back to being tied at three. Regulation and overtime would come to an end without a resolution and a 3-3 tie.

In the shootout, both Kirill Kaprizov and Frederick Gaudreau would both score (no Hawk scored) to give the Wild the shootout victory. It was a tough way to lose a hard-fought game. The Hawks stayed with a team that has a very talented roster and should be in the playoffs by the end.

They got a point in a game in which they were slightly outplayed. This team is so committed to playing a certain type of way and it keeps them in games against some of these good teams. The Wild took the extra point but the Hawks kept the fight going.

The Blackhawks will now host the New York Islanders on Tuesday night as they look to keep the good play going. It is going to be a good test against a veteran team that has been playing well. We don’t know what this season will truly bring yet but this is a big test.