Wild chase Fleury, ease past Blackhawks

CHICAGO-- Ryan Hartman scored two goals for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

Hartman scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season for the Wild (23-10-3), who have won four of five. Kaapo Kahkonen made 35 saves.
The teams play again at Minnesota on Saturday.
Hartman missed practice Thursday with a stomach bug. He played 20:31 on Friday.
"I ate a little bit, a salad and a couple noodles," Hartman said. "Every 10 seconds, it felt like four minutes. I was just kind of exhausted. Hopefully I can get some food in tonight.
"Good thing [the goals] were at the beginning of the shift. Hopefully it's on its way out. My stomach, every time I'd go out, I was trying not to throw up."'

Dylan Strome scored for the Blackhawks (15-19-6), who have lost two straight after a four-game winning streak. Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Kevin Lankinen at 12:05 of the second period after Calen Addison gave the Wild a 4-0 lead with his second NHL goal.
"I didn't expect that," Chicago coach Derek King said. "I thought we'd come out jumping. We knew we were playing against a very good hockey team, and I thought we were up for the challenge. We had plenty of rest where we could practice. The puck dropped, and that's why they're one of the best teams in the league. They come hard, win puck battles, and they're ready to play."
Marcus Foligno gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 2:58 of the first period. He received a backhand pass from Addison from the goal line and swatted the puck for his 15th goal of the season.
Hartman made it 2-0 at 4:47 after he got the puck in front from Kirill Kaprizov. Hartman scored on a shot from the top of the right face-off circle at 17:12 to give the Wild a 3-0 lead.
Addison scored Minnesota's fourth goal with a slap shot from the top of the right circle.
"Just a great game for us overall," Addison said. "I think we played the game the right way. I think when you do things right out there as a team, individually, you have success. Luckily, I just kind of walked down Broadway there, saw a corner and picked it."
King said the Blackhawks will stick with their plan to start Lankinen on Saturday.
"The game plan was Fleury tonight, and me taking Fleury out was nothing to do with him," King said. "We were not good in front of him. Him playing lots of hockey, especially after the COVID (Dec. 27-Jan. 2), he gets tired pretty quick, so I was just saving him really. I'm not a big fan of home-and-homes, but it was more for rest with the body. And then tomorrow we planned on going with Lankinen, so unless that changes, we'd like to stick to that."

Wild coach Dean Evason said Kahkonen would start Saturday.
The Wild had to kill a penalty on Foligno 22 seconds into the game, and Kahkonen said that had him ready for the rest of the game.
"You get right into it, obviously," he said. "I think we started the way we wanted. We got pucks deep. We go after them."
Brandon Duhaime tapped the puck into an open net at 16:26 on a cross-ice pass from Kevin Fiala to make it 5-0.
Strome scored for the Blackhawks from the slot at 14:57 of the third period for the 5-1 final.
NOTES: The Wild expect to have defenseman Jared Spurgeon back Saturday. The Minnesota captain has not played since Dec. 16 because of a lower-body injury. … Cam Talbot is likely to back up Kahkonen on Saturday. He has not played since Jan. 1 because of a lower-body injury. … Jujhar Khaira was scratched by the Blackhawks. King said the forward is day to day with a lower-body injury and would not travel to Minnesota. ... Hartman was selected by the Blackhawks in the first round (No. 30) of the 2013 NHL Draft and he played his first four NHL seasons for Chicago.