The Chicago Blackhawks won their most entertaining game of the season on Sunday in beating the Arizona Coyotes by a final score of 7-4.
The Coyotes opened the scoring 6:09 into the first period when a Taylor Raddysh hook negated the tail end of the Blackhawks’ first power play and created 18 seconds of 4-on-4 time. Arizona won the ensuing faceoff in the Chicago zone, worked the puck to Clayton Keller, and Keller had all kinds of time to fire a quick strike through traffic that beat Arvid Soderblom.
Just 11 seconds into the second period, Nick Schmaltz spotted a wide open Keller streaking through the lane and Schmaltz fed it through Seth Jones to send Keller in on a breakaway for the Coyotes’ second goal.
With 14:32 left in the second, the Blackhawks struck back when Connor Bedard fed the puck into traffic from behind the net and it careened off JJ Moser’s leg and slipped past Connor Ingram to make the score 2-1.
Just over a minute later, a point shot from Alex Vlasic was deflected by Joey Anderson before Colin Blackwell knocked it out of midair then tucked it past a sprawling Ingram to tie the game at two.
Halfway through the period, Bedard drew an additional penalty while the Hawks were already on the power play to give them an extended 5-on-3. Philipp Kurashev found Bedard in the lane and Bedard curled, toe-dragged, and fired it past Ingram to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead.
With six minutes left a Victor Soderstrom shot caromed high off the back wall, bounced through the crease past Soderblom, then went right to Dylan Guenther in the slot, who cleaned up the rebound to tie the game at three.
The Blackhawks got another power play with two minutes left. They held possession off the initial draw, then Bedard skated across the lane and fed a beautiful pass back-door to a wide open Tyler Johnson for the 4-3 lead.
A mere 30 seconds into the third period, Seth Jones muscled a backhand through traffic and Blackwell tucked home the rebound for his second goal of the night and a 5-3 Blackhawks lead.
But Arizona refused to go away. With 13 minutes left, Soderblom made a massive save during a mad scramble in front of his net, but the puck kicked right to Schmaltz, who swatted it in and cut the Hawks’ lead back to one.
With eight minutes gone, Ryan Donato won a neutral zone faceoff, chipped the puck off the wall to himself, then blistered a wrist shot past Ingram to restore the two-goal lead.
Arizona pulled Ingram with 2:30 left, but Blackwell hunted the puck down and fired it into the empty net to secure his first career hat trick and a 7-4 win.
Notes:
- So, hear me out: what if instead of playing in a 5,000-seat college arena, the Coyotes were relocated to Chicago so that the Blackhawks could play them 82 times a season?
- One player who definitely wouldn’t mind? Seth Jones, who had a career-high four assists in this game, and scored six of his 24 points this season in the last two games against Arizona.
- Colin Blackwell also obviously had himself a game with his hat trick. It was nice to see him rewarded, especially after deferring to try and set up Bedard’s third goal when they caught the 2-on-1 in the third period right after Bedard got sprung from the penalty box. I’m sure it’s happened sometime in the not-too-distant past, but I can’t remember an instance where a 2-on-1 could have resulted in a hat trick from either player scoring.
- Individual career milestones aside, the Blackhawks also set season highs in goals (7), shots (41), goals in a period (four in the second), and shots in a period (22 in the second).
- While this was definitely not a game Soderblom will want to hang in his personal Louvre, he battled hard all night, repeatedly challenged Arizona’s shooters whenever they had quality chances in close, and played a significant role in the win. He’ll probably want Keller’s first goal back, but the second was a breakaway, Zaitsev essentially picked him on the third, and he made multiple saves before the Coyotes scored their fourth.
- We also have to give the Hawks credit as a team overall. Giving up that second goal only 11 seconds into the second period easily could have been a backbreaker — especially with the built-in excuses of a game the night before combined with daylight savings time and a 5 p.m. start. Instead they put up, arguably, their best offensive period of the entire season.
- This was a fun one, and we haven’t gotten a lot of them this season. So let’s take a moment not just to appreciate the result, but also the reason why we got there. The kid absolutely took over the game. And remember, he’s just getting started.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Connor Bedard — 2 Goals, 1 Assist
- Colin Blackwell — Hat trick
- Seth Jones — 4 Assists
What’s Next
The Blackhawks will welcome the Anaheim Ducks to the United Center on Tuesday night at 7:30.