Blackhawks vs Wild. Wild Vs Blackhawks. Whichever way you prefer, you can look forward to a tough series between two teams hungry for a championship. The Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champs and are fresh off a hard fought win in the first round against the St. Louis Blues in six games. The Wild bring enthusiasm and momentum into this series after upsetting the Central Division-leading Colorado Avalanche in a wild roller coaster ride of a series. The Wild’s win in game seven in Colorado was the first win on the road by either team in the best of seven series.
The puck drops at 9:30 Eastern/8:30 Central Time.
The upcoming Blackhawks vs Wild series is a rematch of last year’s opening round series. The Blackhawks won that season handily in five games en route to drinking champagne from the Stanley Cup. However, this year’s Minnesota Wild team is a little older, a little more experienced and a little more hungry to deliver the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. And if we’ve seen anything in their round one series against the Avs, it’s that you don’t ever count the scrappy Wild out.
According to a Yahoo! Sports report, Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu had this to say about this year’s team:
“I think this year’s team, we went through a lot, a lot of adversity throughout the year, and I think we grew from last year. The experience we have now from the first round brought us together in many ways.”
For their part, the Blackhawks were watching game seven of the Avs-Wild series and had almost counted the Wild out before Minnesota came from behind to win the game. Chicago’s Patrick Sharp had this to say of the final game of the Wild-Avs series and the effects the extra rest could have on his team going into the second round Wild vs Blackhawks series:
“It was crazy. Back and forth. Every time there was a goal scored, I was thinking we were playing that team or the other team, right down to the very end…It (the Avs-Wild series going seven games) could work either way. You’ve seen teams come and then really ride that momentum from the previous series and you’ve seen the opposite happen.”
You won’t want to miss any of the action in the Wild vs Blackhawks series. If you’re away from the TV set, you can watch the Blackhawks vs Wild game streaming online live here .