Minnesota came into Thursday night already hurting for forward depth. With Mikael Granlund nursing a lower body injury, and Zach Parise with, who the hell knows, the Wild’s first game against the hated Blackhawks from Chicago would put not just a dent, but a huge fricken gouge into the Wild top nine. But the Wild’s leading scorer, Chris Stewart, of all people, would score two goals en route to a gutty, gritty 5-2 victory.
During a scoreless first period, the Wild, which had lost nearly all of its defensive structure in the second and third periods of the Carolina game last weekend, looked to be playing much tighter defensively.