The Blackhawks put out what appeared to be pretty close to their opening night roster on Friday night. The Minnesota Wild did as well. So this figured to be a pretty good test to show us how the Blackhawks’ regulars are picking up the systems the new coaching staff are trying to install. And how the Blackhawks stack up against a division rival.
If you wanted to discount the win in Minnesota from last week because of the rosters, that excuse was out the window. If you wanted to see the Blackhawks start faster… they did that. But special teams in the second period was the sum of the night.
First Period: 2-0 Blackhawks
Frank Nazar wants to impress USA Hockey early this year to help his chances of making the Olympic roster. Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin is in charge of putting that roster together. So what did Nazar do in Minnesota earlier in the preseason? A hat trick. And what did he do to start the game tonight? Picked up right where he left off last week!Frank Nazar opens the scoring! pic.twitter.com/bk537cAdy0
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) October 4, 2025 Less than four minutes later, one of the other young Blackhawks — Sam Rinzel — unloaded a shot that was nicely redirected into the net by Nick Foligno. The Blackhawks work on tipping point shots a lot in practice, and with the shots that could come from Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov this year there could be plenty of opportunities. Levshunov led the Blackhawks with three shot attempts (one on net) in the first period.Nick Foligno gets a stick on the shot from Sam Rinzel to make it a 2-0 game pic.twitter.com/WnSGeLPrrZ
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) October 4, 2025 Nolan Allan, looking to make a good impression and win a spot on the blue line to start the regular season, had the second assist on the Foligno goal. He was also credited with one hit in 5:04 on the ice. A solid first period for Allan. Once the Blackhawks got their two-goal lead, the shots started to favor Minnesota. The Wild were credited with seven of the last eight that were on net in the first period. One negative: the Blackhawks only won 4 of 18 faceoffs in the first period. Other than that? Good stuff.Second Period: 3-2 Wild
The trend of the Wild controlling the puck and dominating the shots continued in the second period — aided by a parade of Blackhawks to the penalty box. Unfortunately the Blackhawks went short-handed when André Burakovsky was caught tripping Ryan Hartman less than two minutes into the second period. And — surprise! — Vladimir Tarasenko scored a power play goal on a pretty shot to cut the lead in half early in the advantage. Unfortunately, less than two minutes after Tarasenko scored a power play goal the Blackhawks were short-handed again. Allan was battling with Kirill Kaprizov in front of the net and was called for a high stick. The Blackhawks were able to kill that penalty. Soon after that penalty ended, Connor Murphy got a big piece of Matt Boldy. Joel Eriksson Ek came in and hit Murphy had, and we had all ten skaters exchanging holiday recipes against the board. What impressed me was seeing Wyatt Kaiser come flying in to grab Eriksson Ek and get him off the elder defenseman. Good leadership from a young guy who’s going to have a big role in the coming years. Love to see that. The teams went to 4-on-4 after the hug session in the corner. Unfortunately the Blackhawks got pinched for having too many men on the ice with 45 seconds remaining in the 4-on-4 and had to kill a 4-on-3 against a dangerous team. Murphy, Kaiser and Jason Dickinson handled it, though. Buuuut the Blackhawks were still short-handed when the 4-on-4 ended for another 75 seconds. They couldn’t keep the puck out of the net, as Boldy exacted revenge for the big hit from Murphy and tied the game. Murphy kept hammering people. He got a big piece of Nico Sturm a few moments after the game was tied and Yakov Trenin came in for a small bit of extracurriculars. Trenin was called for a penalty on the play, giving the Blackhawks a desperately needed power play. The shots on goal were 9-2 in the period and 19-7 in the game when the Blackhawks went on the advantage. Unfortunately, the Blackhawks did not score on the power play. Less than one minute after that power play ended, Landon Slaggert earned another power play with a pure effort play, forcing Zeev Buium to hold him as he attacked the puck into the offensive zone. The Blackhawks didn’t score on that power play, and Rinzel went to the box to give Minnesota another power play. Hartman scored the third power play goal of the period for the Wild and the Blackhawks found themselves trailing with less than two minutes left in the middle frame. Special teams was the story of the second period. Minnesota was 3-for-4 on the power play. The Blackhawks were 0-for-3 thru 40 minutes. And the score was 3-2 bad guys going to the third. At 5-on-5, the shot attempts were only 21-15 in favor of the Wild thru two periods. But when the teams only played 8:50 of 5-on-5 in the second period, it was hard to get any kind of flow. And, for the Blackhawks, more short-handed ice time meant less ice time for Connor Bedard. The Blackhawks won only 12 of 39 faceoffs thru two periods. Nazar was the best for Chicago, winning 5 of 13. Dickinson only won 1 of 10.Third Period: 3-2 Wild
The Blackhawks were better defensively to start the third period. Kaiser and Rinzel were especially noticeable with and without the puck. They limited the Wild to nine total shot attempts in the entire third period. Allan also had a strong showing in his audition for the roster, skating 15:50 with two hits and two shot attempts with his assist. He was plus-one in the game. Kaiser continued to get chippy. He and Eriksson Ek got into it again with 8:27 left in regulation and both went to the box for a 4-on-4 with the Blackhawks still chasing one. The Blackhawks pulled Spencer Knight with just under three minutes left in regulation, still down one. With the empty net behind them, the Blackhawks put on a flurry of shots but Filip Gustavsson had every answer. The Wild committed to blocking shots and their goaltender stood on his head to earn the win. The Blackhawks had a 27-9 shot attempt advantage in the third period and finished the night out-chancing the Wild 52-42.NHL GameScore Impact Card for Chicago Blackhawks on 2025-10-03: pic.twitter.com/sCdnceSrJY
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 4, 2025Hence then, the article about blackhawks 2 wild 3 preseason takeaways was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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