Wild notes: Crawford keys Chicago victory

Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford was seranaded by the crowd at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night, hearing "Crawford, Crawford, Crawford" time and again.

But Crawford ended up the star of the game, stopping 34 shots to lead the defending Stanley Cup champions into the Western Conference finals.

"I could hear it," Crawford said after a 2-1 overtime victory. "It's the fun part of hockey trying to get in my head. I enjoyed it."

"He did what he does,'' said Patrick Kane, who scored the game-winner in overtime.

Crawford kept the Hawks in a game, stopping Justin Fontaine twice on breakaways and stoning Cody McCormick on a nifty wraparound attempt.

"It's exciting to say you didn't play your best and still won a series,'' Kane said. "We still feel like we have another level to get to.''

Wild defenseman Keith Ballard has a history of concussions, so he said he would not have played in Tuesday's game if he had any concussion symptoms.

"I feel fine. I felt fine for a couple days. We were trying to be pretty smart about it."

Ballard said he understands the symptoms of a concussion because he has had them before, including earlier this season when he missed seven games with one.

"You think, 'Ah, I don't have a headache, but I don't feel right. I'm a little bit out of it. I'm more irritable,' or whatever," he said. "There's so many different symptoms, and I've had over the years a couple concussions. I've become more aware of how I'm feeling and understanding what goes along with it.

"It's not an injury that you necessarily are in a lot of pain or anything. You get some headaches here and there. They can all vary, too. It's just more of when you know the long-term effects. I've got little kids at home. I don't want to be putting myself in a position where in 10 years I can't remember their names and can't get through a day functioning normally, so that's the scary part of these things."

The Wild is the first team in NHL history to have three Finnish centers (Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund and Erik Haula) on the same roster, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Haula said Koivu has been a huge help for him.

"I respect him a lot and always want to hear what he has to say," Haula said. "He has given me a lot of pointers about being a pro and is definitely a guy to look up to."

Goalie Darcy Kuemper, injured during Game 7 of the first round, backed up Ilya Bryz- galov on Tuesday.

"It's tough between [Josh Harding] and Johnny Curry and Kuemps; obviously we make sure that Bryz gets what he needs every morning, and we don't have a ton of quality practice time right now, so when you have three guys pretty much sharing one net, it's kind of difficult for any of those guys to get the workload that he needs," coach Mike Yeo said. "But [Kuemper] had a real good practice [Monday], he felt really good, so this has been coming for a couple days and happy to have him back."

Left winger Matt Moulson (lower-body injury) missed his third consecutive game.

• Defenseman Nate Prosser was scratched.