Blackhawks surpass 2025 point total after another overtime loss to Wild

The Blackhawks earned their 62nd point of the season Tuesday night, surpassing their total from last season with 15 games left. It’s a definitive indication they’re improving.

However, they surely would have liked to reach that mark in a more satisfying way than in another 4-3 overtime loss to the Wild. In three meetings this season against their northern rivals — Nov. 26, Jan. 27 and Tuesday — that has been the score.

“We were talking about it and thinking about it after [the game] — how high up in the rankings that team is and how well we played that second half of the game,” forward Frank Nazar said. “We can be right up there, too. It’s just a matter of how we play the whole game.”

Nazar was referencing the Hawks’ awful first period, in which they were outscored 3-1 and the Wild had a 13-1 edge in high-danger scoring chances.

The Hawks battled back, with a 10-6 advantage in high-danger chances the rest of the way. A savvy transition play from defenseman Artyom Levshunov to center Connor Bedard to Nazar tied the game with 1:40 left — the latest of a few clutch late goals in recent weeks.

The Wild dominated overtime, however, and forward Mats Zuccarello’s winner at 3:09 felt inevitable. The gap between the playoff-bound Wild and the Hawks seems encouragingly slim, but there’s still a gap.

“Once we got going, we were real good,” Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “We just have to find a way to try to get that stretched out more to 60 minutes. The lows can’t be as low as [they were] in the first.”

Boisvert watch

Forward Sacha Boisvert, 20, sat in street clothes on the bench Tuesday, watching morning skate while waiting for approval of his U.S. work visa.

Once that’s settled, he’ll be eased into the lineup slowly, Blashill said.

“[He] will need to have a physical impact on the game on a night-to-night basis,” Blashill added. “If he can do that, he becomes a real commodity. . . . He can add something to our team I don’t know we have enough of, and that’s that kind of hard skill.”

Notes

Defenseman Matt Grzelcyk was a healthy scratch — his first missed game this season. Forward Ryan Donato is the only Hawk to play in all 67 games.

• Defenseman Louis Crevier’s goal in the first period, a bomb from just inside the blue line, measured 102.54 mph — the hardest shot resulting in a goal this season. Crevier now leads all NHL players with five shots measured faster than 100 mph.