The Chicago Blackhawks, coming into Thursday losers of three straight since the 4-Nations Face-Off, needed a game in which they played well so badly. Winning would be nice but they hadn’t even had a game that they weren’t thoroughly outplayed yet.
It looked like that trend was going to continue against the Vegas Golden Knights. They were down 5-1 after the first period and were outshot 15-8.
Shockingly, they didn’t get completely blown out from there. They hardly dominated after the first but they were considerably better than they were in the opening frame.
In the second period, Ethan Del Mastro’s first career NHL goal was one of two that they scored but Vegas also added one. That had them down 6-3 at the second intermission.
In the third, Ilya Mikheyev and Philipp Kurashev scored goals to get Chicago back within one. This team doesn’t score a ton but they found a way to make this particular game interesting.
Ivan Barbashev of Vegas ended any hope that the Blackhawks had when his tip-in goal gave the Golden Knights a 7-5 lead. That took the momentum from Chicago and gave it back to Vegas. 7-5 was the final.
The Hawks outscored Vegas 4-2 in the second and third periods combined. The play was close to even too which is a good sign but overcoming the 5-1 first was too much.
Notably, the Golden Knights had three power plays in this game and the Blackhawks had none. Vegas scored on two of their three man-advantages and that played a role in their win. Chicago talked about it in postgame interviews:
Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) on X Vegas got 3 power plays, Blackhawks zero. They felt like they were owed one in the third period. Murphy: “We were outplaying and had them on their heels, and usually that’s when one of those little stick slashes or hooks ends up being called, so it would’ve been nice to see that
With that said, the Blackhawks allowing five goals in the first period had a lot more to do with their loss than the officiating but it was frustrating for them to not get a single power play over 60 minutes. Vegas didn’t play a perfectly disciplined game.
One player who deserves some shine for the way he played on an individual level is Frank Nazar. He had two assists and they were both primary as he made two goals happen by driving play. The offensive upside that he has was on full display in this one.
Now, the Blackhawks have to dig deep to get out of this bad streak following. There is one more game to salvage something on this road trip as they will visit the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday night.
For the last few years, the Ducks have been right there with the Blackhawks near the bottom of the league but they have been incredibly hot lately.
Anaheim is 7-2-1 in their last ten games and is just six points below the playoff line. Their biggest problem is having to hurdle over four teams to get there.
The point is that they are a much better team and the Blackhawks can’t bring anything other than their best if they want a chance to end the losing skid there.
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