Emery, Blackhawks to face conference-leading Wild

Who has the longest winning streak in the NHL's Western Conference.

Until last night, the answer was the Minnesota Wild, who'd prevailed in seven straight before they found a way to lose to Winnipeg. Now nobody in the West has won more than three in a row — a total which the Blackhawks could equal with a win tonight at Minnesota. Of more significance, though it's not really that big a deal in mid December, is the fact that Chicago could draw within a point of the Wild, with a game in hand, for first place in the conference with a regulation victory.

Minnesota has been one of the biggest surprises in the NHL, if not the biggest. Expected by many, including by this writer, to have trouble equaling their 12th place conference finish from a year ago, the Wild have caught fire after a 4-3-3 October. They won their first four November games, won five straight in the middle of the month and began their seven-game spurt before it ended.

The Hawks have seemingly turned things around after the road got rocky in November. They're 4-0-1 in December. They currenly rank third in the league in goals, and while their bottom-half-of-the-league defense hasn't exactly clicked into gear yet, allowing multiple goals in every game this month, Ray Emery's goaltending has made a defensive resurgence a possibility. He's made 31 and 35 saves and allowed two goals in starting both of the last two games for the Hawks, who won both. He'll start again tonight, despite the fact that coach Joel Quenneville has not yet admitted there's a goalie controversy.

I'm interested to see what the Wild look like. I haven't watched them play since I bit my fingers through their season-ending win over Dallas last year that put the Hawks in the playoffs. Tonight's game could be as interesting as the back-and-forth going on through the media between Hawks center Dave Bolland and several of the Canucks.