Damn You, Versus

Another Wild game, another radio game. Why don't they want me to see the Wild play? They will meet the Blackhawks two more times, and if they are both radio games, I will be upset.
Before the game started, it was mentioned the Wild lost 10 of their first 15 games! No wonder they are 19th in the league. Yikes. Havy's doing ok with 5 goals and nearly a dozen assists. As for their goalie, Harding, he is a right-glove catcher, and to mix in some surfing lingo, he could be considered a goofy-hander ;p Apparently that throws off a lot of players since most tenders catch lefty.
It was also mentioned Hendry is the only Blackhawks player yet to score a goal. His last goal was in the 07-08 season and it was against the Red Wings. I think they said that was his one and only NHL goal, as a matter of fact. I wish he would score more!
When it comes to power plays, Chicago is ranked 9th in the league and I forgot what they said about the Wild, but they are nowhere near that. (edit: They are ranked 22nd) Chicago had 1-4 PPGs in their previous game against MIN. Ditto tonight.

Latendresse scored the first goal at 13:52. I had to look up his name because I had no clue what the announcers were saying. About 4 minutes later Madden scored his 9th of the season, which also goes for his 4th goal in the last six games. Keith had the assist, and apparently he had 31 assists coming into the game and is the average time on ice leader. Not too shabby :)

The second period sounded pretty exciting. There was lots of yelling and "great save!" moments. Hossa was the only person to score and that was at 12:38. Like Madden, that was his 9th of the season. I guess he's gone back to using his "old" equipment, but I don't know when he did that nor do I know how new his other stuff was. Perhaps he started using his old stuff in their last game where he scored two goals? The announcers listed a bunch of stats I couldn't write down because I was too busy knitting (teehee), but they all sounded pretty darn good. NHL.com says they are #1 in the +/- rating at +33. They are [teetering between 1 and] #2 in PKs at 86.9% - only letting in 6 of 72 pucks, right below Boston. #4 in leading after the first period at 16 wins and 3 losses.

Kane and Hossa brought the third period home, Kane with a PPG and Hossa with his second goal of the game on his own rebound (two games/two goals now). Clutterbuck got the puck in the net as well, but he kicked it so it didn't count. They had to review it, but Troy called it right away, so Judd said, "Forget Toronto, ask Troy!"

The Blackhawks are the first team to 30 wins :DD
Hossa, Campbell, and Versteeg were the 1,2, & 3 stars of the game. I thought Latendresse would get a star...

Final score 4-1



January 17th, their game against Detroit is at 11:30AM!