For the second time in as many meetings against the Minnesota Wild this season, the Chicago Blackhawks blew a multi-goal lead en route to a gut-wrenching loss on Tuesday night. Minnesota rallied from a 3-0 deficit to come back and beat the Blackhawks 4-3 in a shootout at Grand Casino Arena.
Tuesday’s game started so promisingly for a Blackhawks bunch that’s struggled mightily to get offensive support in the last two weeks. Coming into the matchup, they had scored only 11 goals, including one empty-netter, in the past seven games. But sparked by some new-look line combinations from head coach Jeff Blashill, the offense was rolling early against the Wild, with three goals in the opening 26 minutes.
For the first time this season, Blashill loaded up his top line with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, who was moved to the wing after strictly serving as the second-line center when healthy. Joining them and drawing back into the lineup after missing the last six games with an upper-body injury was Teuvo Teravainen, rounding out the trio. The three players were effective together all night long, and they cashed in for a goal on their first shift to give the Blackhawks an early 1-0 lead.
Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev added goals from the bottom six to put the Blackhawks ahead 3-0, where they were seemingly in firm control of the game. However, much like the first matchup at the United Center in late November, the Wild kept a never-say-die attitude and clawed their way back into the fight.
Yakov Trenin kick-started the comeback effort and got the Wild on the board just past the midway point of the second period, and then two greasy goals in the third, including one with the extra attacker on the ice, evened the score 3-3. Joel Eriksson-Ek and Jared Spurgeon scored in the final frame to force overtime.
Adding to the misery of blowing a 3-0 lead is that the Blackhawks, had they converted on their late power play chances, could have avoided disaster on Tuesday. Danila Yurov and Matt Boldy were each sent to the penalty box in the final 12 minutes of regulation, but the man advantage couldn’t convert on either opportunity to put the game away.
Boldy also committed a second infraction during overtime that didn’t get capitalized on, as Chicago’s power play went 0-for-5 on the night. They’re now without a power-play goal in eight consecutive games, going 0-for-22 during that stretch.
For the third time in the last four games, a shootout was needed to determine a winner. And similar to that first showdown between these teams two months ago, Wild star Kirill Kaprizov came away with the game-winner to rip the Blackhawks hearts out. Kaprizov was the only player to score in the shootout, sending Minnesota to a 4-3 victory.
Here are the highlights from a painful defeat at Grand Casino Arena, dropping the Blackhawks’ record to 21-23-9 through 53 games this season.
FIRST PERIOD
It didn’t take long for Teravainen to make an impact in his first game back from injury, as he scored on his opening shift to give the Blackhawks an early 1-0 lead. After Louis Crevier ripped a shot on net, Teravainen fought through traffic and found a loose puck in the crease for his 10th goal of the season at 1:19.
Louis Crevier➡️Connor Bedard➡️Teuvo Teravainen🚨
Teravainen puts home the loose change in his first shift back from injury to put the #Blackhawks ahead 1-0 early! It’s Teravainen’s 10th goal of the season. Bedard snaps his 3-game point drought.pic.twitter.com/4MsnKnyYvT
— Talkin’ Hawkey (@TalkinHawkey) January 28, 2026
Donato doubled the Blackhawks’ lead at 15:14, snapping an 11-game goal drought off a brutal giveaway from Wild defenseman Brock Faber. Donato ripped a slapshot from the left circle over Jesper Wallstedt’s glove for his 11th goal of the season. 2-0, Chicago.
While they’ve been finding ways to score first, the first period has still been a struggle for the Blackhawks recently. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday, as they were buzzing early and often, putting the Wild on their heels for most of the stanza. It was the best period for the Hawks in weeks, as they led 2-0 on the scoreboard and held a 12-6 advantage in scoring chances.
SECOND PERIOD
Minnesota was building momentum in the early stages of the second period, but the Blackhawks still scored the next goal, extending the lead to 3-0. Alex Vlasic made a perfect flip pass off the boards that allowed Mikheyev to use his speed in transition. He got behind Faber and wristed a shot glove-side past Wallstedt for his 10th goal of the season at 5:54. Mikheyev has now picked up a point in four of the last five games.
Alex Vlasic➡️Ilya Mikheyev🚨
Vlasic makes a perfect flip pass to setup Mikheyev for his 10th goal of the season to extend the #Blackhawks lead to 3-0! Mikheyev with a beauty for his 5th point in the last 5 games.pic.twitter.com/CuKR7usfp3
— Talkin’ Hawkey (@TalkinHawkey) January 28, 2026
Knight kept Minnesota off the board for the first 32 minutes, but a blunder by defenseman Matt Grzelcyk dashed his shutout bid. Grzelcyk was put in a tough position with the puck fired right at him near the blue line, and he tried to kick it back into the offensive zone. But the puck banked off his boot and got behind him, giving the Wild an odd-man rush the other direction. Trenin rushed in and placed a shot right under Knight’s blocker, cutting the Blackhawks lead to 3-1 at 12:33.
The Wild had a few more dangerous looks to further cut into their deficit, but Knight made some key stops to keep the Blackhawks ahead by two going into the second intermission. Shots on goal were 20-15 in favor of Chicago.
THIRD PERIOD
Less than four minutes into the third period, Minnesota scored a second consecutive goal to chisel the Blackhawks’ lead down to one. Quinn Hughes utilized his swift skating ability to create enough time and space to rifle a spinning shot on net. Eriksson-Ek got inside position on Wyatt Kaiser and put home the rebound at 17:58. Suddenly, the lead was down to 3-2.
Throughout most of the third period, the Blackhawks did an excellent job of keeping the Wild to the outside and limited their scoring chances. Minnesota only generated six shots and three scoring chances in the period, but they found a way to score two gritty goals to tie the game.
Just after Wallstedt hit the bench for the extra attacker, Spurgeon jumped into the play down low and found a loose puck to even the score 3-3 at 17:58. Knight made a pair of pad stops, but Spurgeon eventually got a follow-up attempt past him.
OVERTIME
During their 4-on-3 power play in overtime, Bedard tried taking matters into his own hands and single-handedly carrying his team to victory. He was calling for the puck and doing everything he could to pot a game-winning goal, and he nearly pulled it off. Bedard let go of a nasty curl-and-drag wrist shot from the right circle that just barely caught Wallstedt’s blocker. Bedard couldn’t believe he didn’t find the back of the net.
SHOOTOUT
It was a very unfortunate end to Thursday’s game, as the Blackhawks didn’t give their best effort in the shootout. Nazar went first and actually beat Wallstedt five-hole with a shot, but he let go of the puck from a tough angle and slid the puck wide of the net. Bedard went second and got caught stickhandling one too many times, as he lost control of the puck and failed to get a shot on net.
In the top of the second round, Kaprizov roofed a shot over Knight’s blocker to give Minnesota a 1-0 advantage in the shootout. It ended up being the game winner.
Donato went third for the Blackhawks, needing to score to advance the shootout into a fourth round. He tried to beat Wallstedt to the blocker, but the Swedish netminder made the save to give the Wild a 4-3 shootout win.
To make matters worse, all the moms were in attendance to witness the downfall on Tuesday. Not the start to the mom’s trip that the Blackhawks were looking for.
Let’s hope the trip ends better than it starts when they return to action against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
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