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Cheetah‑licious Christmas: Blackhawks 3, Rangers 0

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks bounced back into the win column on Wednesday night with a 3-0 victory against the New York Rangers at the United Center.

After a scoreless opening frame, the Blackhawks struck first with a shorthanded tally about seven minutes into the second. Louis Crevier chased down a cleared puck and powered his way to the net to finish it off. Credit goes to Ilya Mikheyev, who forced the turnover that started it all, and Matt Grzelcyk, who launched the clearing pass that sprung the play.

The Blackhawks thought they’d doubled the lead when Ryan Donato scored at 10:40 of the second, but the Rangers successfully challenged for the goal to be overturned after officials ruled that Colton Dach had moved the puck with a hand pass.

Connor Bedard made sure the next one counted, ripping home a one-timer with 3:33 left in the middle frame after Andre Burakovsky carried the puck into the zone and set him up in a dangerous part of the ice.

Tyler Bertuzzi extended the Blackhawks lead to 3-0 less than four minutes into the third, jamming in a rebound at the right post after Igor Shesterkin turned aside Ryan Greene’s between-the-legs attempt. Bedard orchestrated the play with a slick zone entry before dropping it back to Greene.

That was more than enough for the Blackhawks, who closed out the shutout and snagged two points.

Notes

This was a much-needed victory for the Blackhawks, who were coming off their two worst showings of the season. Not only did they win, they did it by being the better team basically from start to finish — something we haven’t been able to say much lately.

In the first period, the Blackhawks looked like a team with something to prove. Their transition game was crisp, their puck movement was clean, and they flat out controlled play. Chicago owned 60.53 percent of the shot attempts, 62.5 percent of the shots on goal, and 63.99 percent of the expected goals — a commanding performance made even more impressive by the fact that the entire period was played at 5-on-5. Just general, honest-to-goodness, good hockey. They genuinely deserved at least a couple of goals for their effort, but Igor Shesterkin was basically a wall.

The Blackhawks finally broke through that wall in the second period with two goals, even though — ironically — it was their weakest 5-on-5 frame by the numbers. The Rangers out-attempted the Blackhawks 19–16, outshot them 10–7, and held a 7–6 edge in scoring chances. Still, those margins are pretty small, and it never seemed like the Blackhawks were being outplayed in this period. On top of that, the penalty kill was excellent: not only did it chip in with a shorthanded goal, but they held the Rangers to just one shot on their power play. Considering second periods have been especially brutal for the Blackhawks this season, the one tonight was really nice.

That penalty kill strength carried into the third, when Chicago again limited New York to a single shot on two power plays and generally made the kills look almost effortless. Sure, the Rangers missing Adam Fox plays a part in that, but credit the Blackhawks for executing with structure and composure — two things that were completely absent last weekend. At 5-on-5, the Blackhawks were again the better team, pushing hard early until the Bertuzzi goal and then continuing that momentum after the second penalty kill to salt the game away. The period ended with the Chicago owning 55 percent of the shot attempts and 66.67 percent of the shots on goal, though the quality tilted slightly toward the Rangers at 44.81 percent. But even that is marginal when you look at the actual counts: New York had just seven scoring chances to Chicago’s six, and the Blackhawks limited them to only three high-danger looks with just one actually reaching the net.

Not bad at all for a team that looked like a defensive mess last weekend. Coach Jeff Blashill credited the team for putting in the effort of applying what the team is working on to correct mistakes during practices:

Although he only faced 21 shots, Spencer Knight was steady and sharp in net, coming up with timely saves whenever the game asked for them. The team in front of him did an excellent job limiting the overall workload, so he didn’t need to stand on his head all night, but he was still big in the moments that mattered. That’s the kind of partnership between the team and goalie that supports sustainable success.

The other standout player was, as usual, Connor Bedard. His shot totals weren’t his most overwhelming of the season, but they were still plenty strong: five attempts, five scoring chances, three shots on goal, and three high-danger looks. When he wasn’t shooting, he was setting up his linemates or executing another silky zone entry to kickstart a play. And the move he pulled ahead of Tyler Bertuzzi’s goal was simply a work of art.

Bedard and his line were the best offensive trio on the ice, accounting for 42 percent of the team’s scoring chances. Interestingly, the Blackhawks were out-attempted 15–10 with that line out there, but shots were even (7–7) and the Blackhawks owned 54.78 percent of the expected goals. Quality over quantity was the winning formula for them tonight.

Every other Blackhawks line combination that played at least two minutes at 5-on-5 finished in the green in shot possession, though the quality of those chances varied.

Jason Dickinson, Teuvo Teravainen, and Ilya Mikheyev drew the tough assignment of handling the Rangers’ top line featuring Artemi Panarin. They did an admirable job: the Rangers held a slight scoring-chance edge (4–3), but the Blackhawks controlled more of the attempts (10–7).

Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, and Bertuzzi were even more impressive, generating 58.33 percent of the shot attempts and dominating expected goals at a staggering 93.52 percent. The Rangers had zero scoring chances while that trio was out there, while the Blackhawks generated four.

Nazar, in particular, showed real jump, even if he fumbled his best look of the night — a shorthanded breakaway. It felt a bit like shades of last season’s version of him: playing well, driving play, doing almost everything right … except actually finishing. The assists are still coming, though, and if this follows last year’s pattern, the scoring drought should crack open soon enough. Defensively, this was one of his most impactful games of the season.

The defense also enjoyed a much-needed bounce-back performance. Crevier getting on the board was great to see. Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, and Connor Murphy all delivered strong defensive efforts, while Artyom Levshunov and Matt Grzelcyk helped drive the offensive push even if neither was rewarded on the scoresheet.

Overall, it was refreshing to see the Blackhawks show up ready to atone for their disastrous weekend. Now they just need to figure out how to sustain this momentum for more than a game or two at a time — a tall order with another back-to-back looming this weekend.

Hopefully this one goes better than the last.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Spencer Knight (CHI) — 21-save shutout
  3. Louis Crevier (CHI) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are back on the road, heading to St. Louis to take on the Blues on Friday at 7 p.m.

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