Wild believe they’ll have to go through Hawks to make Cup run

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Devan Dubnyk knows as well as anybody that regular-season success does not guarantee postseason success. From the moment he was acquired by Minnesota in January of 2015, the Wild were the best team in hockey, closing the regular season on a 28-9-3 run that included wins over the dreaded Blackhawks at both the XCel Energy Center and the United Center.

Two weeks later, the Hawks swept the Wild in the second round, eliminating them for the third straight season.

So while Dubnyk is certainly glad the Wild are 8-1-1 in their last 10 regular-season meetings with the Hawks following Tuesday’s 5-3 loss in St. Paul, he knows better than to start making parade plans just yet.

“It hasn’t really translated to playoffs, but I think it’s important against any team to get a winning feeling against them, and feel like in both [their] building and your own building, you know what it feels like to beat them,” Dubnyk said. “When you enter the game, you expect that feeling, and that goes for just about any team. At some point in the playoffs, we’re going to have to go through these guys, and we’re going to have to get over the past. And the best way to approach that is to get as many wins as you can in the regular season.”

The Wild talked a big game back before that 2015 second-round series, that they were a different team, that they were better than ever. Well, they’re even better now. They’re the clear class of the Western Conference so far, up seven points on the second-place Hawks with a game in hand. They’re rolling four lines, and Dubnyk leads the league in both wins (32) and save percentage (.934).

But they know they won’t truly be considered the best in the West until they can prove it in the postseason.

“The past is the past, and you want to remember some of it, how it leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” said forward Charlie Coyle, whose first three NHL seasons ended at the hands of the Hawks. “But all we can do now is just focus on right now, beat them now. And if we see them later, we’ll get ready for that one. … We feel like we’re going to have to go through them to make a run here, so we want to take care of business here in the regular season and set ourselves up as best we can for the playoffs. Right now, all we can do is beat them tonight.”

Road warriors

The Hawks matched a 52-year-old franchise record with their seventh straight road victory on Tuesday night. The only other time the Hawks pulled off such a run was from Dec. 9-29, 1964.

“It’s a tough league and we had some tough road games in tough buildings,” Joel Quenneville said. “We like how things are trending, our four-line game and the balance in our team. That’s a great illustration when the consistency shows up, what we’re capable of. But that’s a good a thing you can have, winning on the road in some tough spots at this time of the year.”

Making history

Tuesday’s victory was Quenneville’s 400th career win with the Hawks. He’s 400-199-79 since taking over for Denis Savard four games into the 2008-09 season.

“I’ve been fortunate here to coach such a great group of guys, and a great talented group, as well,” Quenneville said. “We’ve had a lot of success. It’s happened very quickly, it’s been a fun place to work and coach. Every year you feel you have a chance to win the Cup, and that’s been fun to be a part of, as well.”

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