The vibes were high after the Chicago Blackhawks’ big overtime win over the Utah Hockey Club on March 7th. They looked to take that momentum on the road for four games but they did no such thing.
After going 0-2-1 in the first three, they had a chance to get a little something out of the trip when they paid a visit to the Vancouver Canucks. Connor Bedard’s homecoming is always exciting but it didn’t go his team’s way.
Vancouver was winning 2-0 at first intermission thanks to goals from Quinn Hughes and Tyler Myers. Despite playing a solid opening period on the road, the Canucks were opportunistic and took the multi-goal lead.
In the second period, Vancouver extended their lead to three with a Connor Garland goal at 8:08. This was a beautiful passing play that Garland completed with Nils Hoglander and Pius Suter.
Alex Vlasic scored one to get Chicago on the board at 18:51. That 3-1 score went to the second intermission. At that point, it felt like the Blackhawks were back in the game.
At 4:01 of the third, something happened that you don’t see every day. Elias Pettersson took a shot that appeared to hit the post. That left the Blackhawks scrambling in the defensive zone before Nils Hoglander found it and rifled it into the net.
After further review, however, it was determined that Pettersson’s initial shot didn’t hit the post. It went in the net. It was going to be 4-1 anyway but Pettersson got his rightful credit for the goal.
Just over a minute later, Wyatt Kaiser responded with a beautiful wrist-shot goal to make it 4-2. On the play, Artyom Levshunov earned his first career NHL point with an assist. He sent Kaiser in for the good chance that led to a goal.
In his three NHL games so far, Levshunov has had some learning moments but it has mostly been great for him. He has a ton of confidence when the puck is on his stick and he’s been defending well.
Next up for Levshunov is his first career NHL goal which is coming soon. He loves to shoot the puck and he’s quite good at finding the net through traffic. Eventually, one will sneak through. He’s also going to collect a lot of points from deflection goals in the coming years with that talent.
Any chance of Chicago coming back was shut down by Vancouver later in the third as they scored two more goals in eight seconds about midway through the final frame. The 6-2 score was the final.
Things looked good for Chicago in terms of how they were playing in the first half of the game. Things fell off hard in the third period though which made the final score look even worse.
With under three minutes left in the game, there were some skirmishes at the whistle. The referees started handing out ten-minute misconducts and Connor Bedard was one of the players to get one.
This is the second game in a row where Bedard was handed this penalty. Frank Nazar, Filip Hronek, and Conor Garland were also given ten-minute misconduct penalties.
Chicago only gave up 15 shots on goal in this one which is their lowest total allowed this season. Arvid Soderblom didn’t have his best night in the net which was obvious. The Hawks didn’t allow a ton of shots in the game but they weren’t as good in the second half. Vancouver was able to make good plays and capitalized when given the chance.
Now, the Hawks will return home for seven of their next eight games. They must learn from this 0-3-1 road trip ahead of their match against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night if they want to keep the good play at home going.
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