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Wild have to find a way to slow down Patrick Kane on Sunday

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Patrick Kane has become arguably the Blackhawks' best playmaker but his offensive talent has been noticed from his start in hockey.

The Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks are meeting on Sunday night in a battle for first place in the Central Division in what is the first of four meetings between the two teams over the second half of the season.

If the Wild are going secure their spot on top of the division they are probably going to have to take care of business in at least a few of those head-to-head meetings. If they are going to do that on Sunday their No. 1 priority has to be something they really haven’t been able to do very much in recent seasons: slowing down the Blackhawks’ leading scorer, Patrick Kane.

Not only because he is coming into Sunday’s game with 18 points in his past 16 games -- including five multi-point games -- to jump back into the NHL’s scoring race, but also because he has made a habit out of scoring a lot of goals -- big goals, too -- against the Wild. Sunday’s game is the latest Star Sunday showdown on NBCSN, and the focus from a Chicago perspective will be on Kane.

If there is a team in the NHL that has experienced what he can do on the ice over the past few seasons it has absolutely been the Wild.

Just consider that since the start of the 2012-13 season alone, including playoffs, Kane has recorded 33 points (16 goals, 17 assists) in 31 games against the Wild, with many of those goals coming either in highlight reel fashion or in a key moment, including this overtime series clinching goal back in 2014

There have been more over the years (here, here, and here).

Even though he isn’t scoring at quite the same pace he did a year ago when he took home the Art Ross Trophy with 106 points (one of the highest point totals in the league over the past five years), he has still been the forward driving Chicago’s offense this season with a hand in more than 37 percent of the team’s goals.

More: Wild, Blackhawks fight for top spot in Central Division