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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Last year, the Chicago Blackhawks gave the Minnesota Wild a quick exit from the playoffs. This year, the Wild are giving the defending Stanley Cup champions all they can handle. Jason Pominville and Matt Cooke scored first-period goals and Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Thursday night. After losing a five-game series in the first round of last years playoffs, the Wild have won three of four against the Blackhawks this season. "I know we get geared up to play that team," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "I think the fact that weve played them as much as we have, I think our guys are confident going into the game knowing we can play with them. "Obviously theyre such a great team, and we have so much respect for them, we havent taken any nights off against that hockey team." Kuemper was making his sixth consecutive start as Minnesotas top two goalies, Josh Harding and Niklas Backstrom, have been sidelined with health problems. The Wild are 5-3 with rookie in the net this season. "Im pretty confident right now," Kuemper said. "Obviously I just want to go in there and every time I get a chance, help the team win. And when youre getting wins like this, obviously its easy to keep rolling and come to the rink every day with a smile." Patrick Kane spoiled Kuempers shutout bid when he scored his 24th goal of the season with 31.2 seconds left to bring the Blackhawks to within one. But Kuemper stopped one final flurry in the last 10 seconds and Zach Parise cleared the puck from Minnesotas zone to run out the clock. Pominville opened the scoring at 8:08 of the first period. Dany Heatley carried the puck across the Chicago blue line and passed to Mikael Granlund near the goal mouth. Granlund spun back around and slid the puck across the slot, where Pominville was waiting to send it in the open net for his 20th of the season. "Hes the type of player that doesnt really need to know Im there," Pominville said of Granlund. "He just has a feel for it." The Blackhawks killed off a 5-on-3 power play, but Minnesota doubled its lead late in the first period. Justin Fontaine won a race to a loose puck and tipped it to Cooke, who slipped it past Antti Raanta from the left faceoff circle. "They made a decent play," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "After the big kill that was a deflating goal, but there was still a lot of hockey left." Raanta, who entered the game with a 12-1-3 record this season, was upset with himself after the game for putting his team in a 2-0 hole early. "Their first goal was pretty nice, tic-tac-toe, but the second one was too easy," Raanta said. "When they get two goals in the first period youre behind all the time. Its much harder to play because Minnesota was defensively so good. Every goal counts and today there was one easy goal so thats not a good thing." Kuemper got a little help from his defence to keep it 2-0 late in the second. During a Minnesota power play, Pominville tripped at the Chicago blue line and Marian Hossa pounced for a short-handed breakaway. But defenceman Ryan Suter caught up to Hossa just in time to prevent him from getting a clean shot. Kanes goal prevented them from being shut out for the first time in 120 games, but the Blackhawks lost in regulation for only the second time since Dec. 15. "Theyre the best team in the league and ... theyre going to see every teams best game. Its pretty impressive what theyre doing, even this year," said Parise, who returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a broken left foot. "For whatever reason, our game elevates when we play them. And I thought ... we did a good job of containing their top players. Other than Kane getting that one at the end, we did a pretty good job of neutralizing them." Notes: Blackhawks D Duncan Keith missed his first game of the season Thursday. He was a pregame scratch due to illness. ... Blackhawks senior adviser Scotty Bowman is scheduled to have right knee replacement surgery Friday in Tampa, Fla. The 13-time Stanley Cup champion has a residence about an hour from Tampa. ... Kuempers mask broke during the second period, and he used Backstroms mask for about 10 minutes while it was being fixed. Cheap Yeezy Boost 350 . According to TSNs Farhan Lalji, Richardson is heading to Toronto for a physical and is expected to sign with the Argonauts. Yeezy Shoes Cheapest . The outdoor event will be played on Dec. 31 between alumni of the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies. http://www.cheapyeezysneakers.com/yeezy-shoes-outlet.html . Bryce Harper? He also came into Wednesday without a long ball and hadnt driven in a run. He was hitting .160, had nearly three times as many strikeouts as hits and was dropped to seventh in the batting order. Cheap Yeezy Boost 750 For Sale . There will be no Down Under four-peat for Djokovic, as the eighth-seeded Swiss slugger Wawrinka outlasted the second seed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7 at Melbourne Parks Rod Laver Arena in yet another five-set thriller in their burgeoning rivalry. Authentic Yeezy Shoes For Sale . Kalish got his first hit since Sept. 11, 2012, when he rapped an RBI triple in the first inning Sunday in the Chicago Cubs 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.A pair of struggling Pacific Division clubs will meet tonight in the desert, as the Phoenix Coyotes host the Calgary Flames at Jobing.com Arena. While Calgary has lost five in a row, the Coyotes have dropped two straight, five of six and eight of their last 10 games. Phoenix appeared on its way to a win in Saturdays home tilt against Philadelphia before allowing the Flyers to rally for a 5-3 decision. The Flames have fared well against Phoenix recently, taking three of four and five of the last seven meetings in this series overall. The Coyotes, however, have won two in a row and seven of the past eight encounters at Jobing.com Arena. Calgary halted a four-game slide with Mondays win at Colorado, picking up just its second win in 10 trips to the ice. Another victory on Tuesday would give the Flames their first set of consecutive wins since they beat Carolina and Buffalo on Dec. 12 and 14, respectively. The Flames, who are in 13th place out of 14 teams in the Western Conference, used a Mike Cammalleri power-play goal with 3:30 to play on Monday to down the Avalanche by a 4-3 score. Jiri Hudler and Joe Colborne each had a goal and an assist, while Sean Monahan scored the other goal for the Flames, who won for just the third time in their past 11 games. Karri Ramo stopped 22 shots in the win. "I thought it started with our power play tonight," said Cammalleri. "Our competition level was better and we were able to stick with our game plan. We did a really good job with faceoffs tonightt and one-on-one battles.dddddddddddd." Reto Berra could get the call in net for the Flames on Tuesday. He has never faced the Coyotes. The Flames are 8-10-3 as the visiting team this season and will complete a brief two-game swing tonight. The Coyotes led the Flyers by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 on Saturday, but Philly notched the final four goals of the contest to win it in regulation. Rob Klinkhammer, Lauri Korpikoski and Mikkel Boedker tallied for the Coyotes, who failed to receive a boost from the return of captain Shane Doan. Doan had been sidelined for a month while battling Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The veteran winger failed to register a point in 18 minutes, 38 seconds of ice time during his first outing since Dec. 4. Mike Smith gave up four goals on 27 shots to lose his fourth straight decision. "When you make mistakes and your goaltender is not cleaning them up, you end up where were at," said Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett. The Coyotes played Saturday without key defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and he expects to miss another tilt on Tuesday due to his upper-body injury. Ekman- Larsson, who has four goals and 22 points in 40 games this season, could return later this week, according to Tippett. Thomas Greiss could get the call in net for Phoenix on Tuesday, although he is 0-2-0 with a 3.55 goals against average in two career games versus the Flames. Calgary scored four time against Greiss in a 4-1 home victory over the Coyotes on Dec. 4. ' ' '