CHICAGO -- The Minnesota Wild put into action Tuesday what they have been talking of doing in recent weeks.

The Wild were desperate to get their game back on track after having lost six of their previous seven games. They had also struggled on the road and entered Tuesday having dropped their last three road contests.

The Wild turned all that around Tuesday and did so against a difficult opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, while in a difficult road environment. The Wild scored the lone third-period goal and pulled out a 2-1 road win over the Blackhawks at the United Center.

With the game tied 1-1, Wild defenseman Ryan Suter scored the game-winning goal when he stuffed the puck into the net after Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford had made an initial save on Wild forward Mikael Granlund at 12:04 of the third period.

"That's a real good response from our group," said Wild coach Mike Yeo, whose team improved to 12-7-4 on the season. "You're nervous because you're coming in here against that team, and you can play a good game and do a lot of things and potentially things might not go your way.

"I liked the way we stayed with it. I think as well as we have in a long time we just stayed with the game. Stayed patient in our game. We kept defending well. Obviously that's a group they're going to find a way to get some looks. But I thought we did a good job."

Wild forward Jason Pominville opened the game's scoring at 4:09 of the first period. He gathered the puck behind the Blackhawks' net and wrapped it around into the goal just beating Crawford. Pominville has scored in the last two games after going goalless in his first 21 games of the season.

The Blackhawks (13-9-3) responded in the second period, and it was no surprise who provided the offensive spark. Forward Patrick Kane tied the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal at 5:21 of the second period. Kane received a pass from defenseman Duncan Keith in the right circle and shot the puck through Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk's legs.

Kane's goal extended his career-high points streak to 20 games and made him the first player in the last five years to record a 20-game points streak, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Sidney Crosby was the last player to do so when he had a 25-game points streak during the 2010-11 season. Kane has 15 goals and 38 points on the season.

From there, the Blackhawks didn't beat Dubnyk again. He finished with 30 saves, including 12 in the third period, to preserve the victory. Like the team, he hadn't been at his best in recent games and had allowed three-plus goals in five of his previous six starts.

"It's huge just to get back in the win column and play a really solid game," Dubnyk said. "It's easy to start to look at the end result of the game when you've lost a few in the last little while. I think we did a good job tonight of not doing that and just keeping it as small as we could."

Crawford gave the Blackhawks a chance throughout the evening. He stopped 34 of 36 shots. He had won four of his previous five starts.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was unhappy with his team's offensive zone time. He didn't feel like the Blackhawks had enough of it.

"No, we haven't had as much as we'd like, you know, that strength in the puck area, protecting the puck, hard going to the net, first to pucks, relentless with our sticks in the puck area, battle area," Quenneville said. "That's where we've been spending time and try to control the game in that area, making them defend, and (there hasn't) been enough of that."

The Blackhawks played in their first home game since Nov. 15. They had been on a six-game road trip.

Overall, Keith thought it wasn't just one area where the Blackhawks needed to be better.

"There's different things throughout the game," Keith said. "At the end of the day, I think they probably came ready to play a little better than we did and outworked us in certain areas. We can look at all different things, but we could've been better."

Granlund recorded the primary assist on both of the Wild's goals. Forward Zach Parise and defenseman Jared Spurgeon also had assists for the Wild.

The Blackhawks were 1-for-3 on the power play, and the Wild were 0-for-4. The Wild are 0-for-7 on the power play in their last three games.

NOTES: Blackhawks F Patrick Kane was named the NHL's No. 1 star for November. He had eight goals and 15 assists during the month. ... F Marko Dano was back in the Blackhawks' lineup after being a healthy scratch against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday. ... Wild D Ryan Suter said after his team's morning skate that he and Minnesota coach Mike Yeo were on the "same page" as far as Suter playing alongside fellow left-handed D Jonas Brodin. Suter had previously questioned Yeo's decision to pair the two lefties. "It's a story that really shouldn't even be a story," Suter said. ... Wild D Marco Scandella returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games with a lower-body injury.