Wild face uphill climb in overcoming series deficit vs. Blackhawks

Here’s what the Minnesota Wild can turn to as they begin their attempt at making history Thursday night: Since acquiring Devan Dubnyk on Jan. 14, they’ve reeled off winning streaks of four games or more three times.

Down 3-0 in the series, the Wild are facing elimination and are hoping the Chicago Blackhawks don’t knock them out for the third straight postseason. But while they have a mountain to climb here, they can really enter Game 4 without any pressure.

Ever since the Blackhawks recovered from blowing a 3-0 lead in the second period of Game 1, they’ve controlled the possession (52.9-percent Fenwick this round, via War on Ice) and withheld the Wild to a single goal. Corey Crawford has stopped 71 of 72 shots faced since Mikael Granlund tied the score in the opening game. Good Corey Crawford has apparently returned.

And, basically, everyone is expecting the Blackhawks to sail on to their third straight Western Conference Final now. The eulogies for this Wild season are already being written. Pressure? How can there be pressure when you’re already being written off?

There’s that, but then when you get to what’s gone wrong for Minnesota in this series — a series many believed the Wild could pull out — the task becomes a daunting one to overcome, even without the presence of pressure.

As Tony Wiseau of Hockey Wilderness noted, the Wild lack a vital tool on their roster that the Blackhawks have a slew of: gamebreakers. If Patrick "I don’t know if I even have my timing back yet” Kane or Jonathan Toews are having an off-night, Joel Quenneville can rely on Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Brandon Saad, etc. to help carry the offensive burden. Mike Yeo? Well, he better hope the Zach Parise/Mikael Granlund/Jason Pominville line is firing because outside of Nino Niederreiter (three goals), Minnesota’s secondary scorers have disappeared faster than a Sasquatch on Finding Bigfoot.

Scoring issues what they are for the Wild, their quest to become the fifth NHL team to overcome a 3-0 series deficit begins with Game 4. They understand their off-season could begin on Friday. They also understand the inevitable could just be extended by a few days should they win tonight.

But every great quest begins somewhere.

“We know the situation we’re in,” said Yeo. “We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re not looking behind us. We’re not saying ‘what if’. We’ve got to get ready for tonight.

“I know it’s cliche, and I know our players are saying the same thing, but that’s the mentality we have to have. And we’ve been in similar situations before where unfortunately sometimes bad things happen, but how you react to them is far more effective instead of trying to figure out why and concentrating on those things.

“We have to react to it the right way. We have to get ready for the next game and control what’s in our control right now.”

But judging from the results of the series through three games, nothing is in the Wild’s control.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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