ST. PAUL, Minn. -- If this playoff hockey game was a circus act, it would be The Dog-Faced Boy.

If it was a color, it would be a lighter shade of beige.

A song? Wreck On The Highway.

And in the Minnesota Wild locker room?

Pure joy. Well, maybe joy with more than a pinch of relief.

After meandering their way through more than two periods of some of the most lackluster hockey produced by any two teams anywhere this spring, the Wild struck for two picture-perfect goals in a span of 2 minutes, 37 seconds early in the third period to break open a scoreless game and go on to a 4-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

"We know it's going to be a really [tight-]checking game," offered Mikael Granlund, who scored the Wild's second goal and added an empty-netter to round out the scoring. "You don't have a lot of room there, you don't have a lot of time to skate with the puck. Both teams are in their face all the time. Sometimes the games are like that and you need to find a way to get a win. Tonight we were able to do that."

The victory, regardless of its pedigree, was significant on a number of fronts.

First, it allowed the Wild to narrow the Blackhawks' lead in this Western Conference semifinals series to 2-1. It was, not to overstate the obvious, a victory the Wild absolutely had to have.

It also marked the team's fourth straight home victory in this playoff season, which is critical given they are 1-5 on the road.

It was also a victory that halted the Chicago Blackhawks' six-game playoff winning streak and dulled -- at least for a couple of days -- the sheen that had reflected so brightly off the defending Stanley Cup champions since they dropped the first two games of the opening round against St. Louis.

Hard to mix in a term like "juggernaut" after this dishwater-dull effort from the Blackhawks.