Tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET, the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild take the ice at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota for Game 4 of their best-of-seven Round 2 series as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. Chicago fans can hear all of the action on WGN 720 while Minnesota fans can do the same on WCCO 830.
Chicago looks to bounce back from its first loss of the series and take a 3-1 series lead back home with a chance to clinch in Game 5 while Minnesota hopes that it can even up the series at home and put some pressure on Chicago.
The Blackhawks won 5-2 in Game 1 and 4-1 in Game 2 at home before the Wild bounced back with a 4-0 win on their home ice in Game 3. The Wild have not lost at home yet during the 2014 postseason.
The Blackhawks wrapped up their first round series against the Wild last postseason by notching wins in Games 1 and 2 before dropping Game 3 and winning Games 4 and 5 in a campaign that would eventually see them hoist the Stanley Cup for the second time in four years. The team hopes to replicate that, but knows it won't be easy.
"This is a different team than we faced last year. They're much improved," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said per NHL.com. "They got hot at the right time at the end of the year. They're much quicker. They're faster. They're hard to play against. There's not a lot of scoring chances. If we get out of ourselves and get ahead, whether it's a shift ahead, you're looking past this team. I think we're respectful for them."
The Wild will lose Matt Moulson (lower-body) this game while Matt Cooke (suspension) returns to the lineup. The team realizes it's important to get this win to mount some pressure on the Blackhawks for Game 5.
"We've given ourselves a chance to even the series up and to go back to Chicago and hopefully put a little bit of pressure on those guys," Wild coach Mike Yeo told NHL.com. "We know that they recognize the importance of the game, as do we."
Zach Parise has paced the Wild in these playoffs with 13 points off of four goals and nine assists while Jason Pominville has one tally and seven helpers for eight points and Mikael Granlund has found the back of the net four times and added three helpers for seven points. Granlund scored twice in Game 3.
Jonathan Toews (four goals, five assists) and Brent Seabrook (two markers, seven helpers) lead the Blackhawks with nine points apiece this postseason while Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell have each lit the lamp five times and added three assists for eight points and Marian Hossa (two goals, six assists) also has eight points -- six of which have come in this series.
Corey Crawford will suit up between the pipes for Chicago tonight and is 6-3 in the playoffs with a 1.99 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage while Ilya Bryzgalov will likely man the crease for Minnesota after going 2-4 thus far this postseason with a 3.09 GAA and a .860 save percentage.
The Blackhawks look to take a commanding 3-1 series lead while the Wild tries to tie things up when the lights come up for Game 4 at Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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