The Chicago Blackhawks hung on after a first-period surge to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Monday night, ending a four-game losing streak.
Philipp Kurashev opened the scoring on the power play at 8:47 of the first period but the primary assist by Alex Vlasic was the real highlight: the defenseman picked up his own rebound, drove around the net and set up a wide open Kurashev above the left circle for the goal.
The Avalanche tied the game 1-1 about 90 seconds later. A domino-drop of a passing play from Sam Malinski to Logan O’Connor to Casey Middlelstadt ended with the latter sniping from the the right circle to beat Petr Mrazek.
The quick scoring continued as, just 48 seconds later, the Blackhawks went back up 2-1. Craig Smith’s shot hit Lukas Reichel as he was heading to the front of the net and deflected past Alexandar Georgiev. Credit Reichel for winning the faceoff clean to start the play.
Ryan Donato added a third Blackhawks goal with 3:04 left in the opening frame by tucking a Jason Dickinson rebound in under Georgiev.
Nathan MacKinnon spoiled the fun a little in the final minute: the star forward pressed the gas to power rush into the zone and right up to the net to score in close, making it 3-2 with 43 seconds left in the first.
Despite a big push by the Avalanche, the second and third periods were scoreless until the Blackhawks added two empty-net goals — from Donato and Ilya Mikheyev — in the final minute of the game to go up and win 5-2.
Notes
That first period was one of the best for the Blackhawks: they controlled play for long stretches, were fairly disciplined and structured defensively, and the effort was at an all-time high. It resulted in them owning every shot category at 5-on-5: attempts were 21-7, shots were 9-2, scoring chances were 13-3, and high-danger changes were 10-1. That latter number is crazy, considering Chicago’s hit double digits on high-danger chances only twice so far at 5-on-5 this season: 10 against Utah in the first game and 12 against the Stars last game. It’s been a real issue for them to get quality shots off, even when their overall possession has been better this season. But that wasn’t he case in the first, as Chicago took it to the net at a considerably higher rate than usual. To put it into context, even though the Blackhawks didn’t really have many more quality chances the rest of the game (only four), the first was so good that this was their highest high-danger chance per 60 game for the season at 18.1, over twice as much as their season average of just 8.87 prior to tonight.
The second and third periods were more dicey, as Colorado really turned it up a notch, but Chicago honestly did a great job at suppressing quality chances against at 5-on-5. Seriously, the Blackhawks kept the Avalanche to just three high-danger chances in the final 40 minutes. Even when the Avalanche were on the power play, they only got an additional four high-danger chances. The Blackhawks stayed out of the penalty box in the third, kept the Avs to the outside as much as possible, and closed out the game in an admirable fashion.
More often than not, this Blackhawks team will lose a game like tonight because the skill discrepancy is still too great. The main differences between wins and losses in games this season has been a fluke deflection getting them — or not getting them — that elusive third goal. But the effort to hold off a team with guys like MacKinnon and Makar on it will definitely get them a few wins, too. I’ll take that.
The third checking line led by Dickinson was especially effective tonight: Chicago owned 64.29 percent of the shot attempts and 75.84 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 when that trio was on the ice. And they did that while primarily facing the MacKinnon line and the Makar-Devon Toews pairing. Vlasic and Connor Murphy were the checking line’s main defense pair, and they were both excellent as well. This type of game from Vlasic isn’t uncommon anymore — he’s been very good to start this season — but it’s been a while since Murphy had quite this good of a shutdown game.
Even with him losing a bit of a step in recent years, Murphy has still been quite physical, and he showed exactly how effective he can be when throwing his weight around during the right moments.
Donato got rewarded with a couple of goals tonight for what feels like good play all season long. He admitted the first goal was a lucky bounce, but he’s doing himself a disservice with saying his shot was luck: he’s made that luck by finding a soft spot in close for rebound opportunities. He’s one of the only players who has consistently been shooting from in close — his 5.22 high danger chance per 60 leads the team. Some of that is skewed because he’s played on the fourth line, but that’s also Donato making the most of those minutes.
Reichel and Smith continue to show chemistry, and Maroon kept up with them a lot better in this game than ones in the past. Their line accounted for nine of the 21 scoring chances and five of the 14 high-danger chances by the Blackhawks at 5-on-5. The Blackhawks have been treating their fourth line like a high-energy, bum-slaying line most nights, and they’ve been excelling at the task. It’s interesting to note that Reichel is actually third best among Blackhawks forwards at generating high-danger chances (a rate of 4.28 per 60 minutes currently), trailing only Donato and Foligno. Although Reichel’s goal tonight wasn’t an actual shot, it was caused by his willingness to go to the net, something he did not do well outside of rushes last season.
I’d still like to see a faster player like Donato or even Mikheyev with Reichel and Smith to see if that can unlock another level to the pair — and to see Reichel get more playing time. Maroon is well enough defensively to sub in on a checking line. Richardson rewarded Reichel last game with an extended look with Bedard, but they just don’t mesh well stylistically. Maybe it could work when they’re both more experienced but, for now, keeping them on different lines with more compatible linemates is best — outside of key situations. Recommend taking a listen to The Rinkside General’s post-Dallas analysis video where he goes into other combinations that may work for Reichel.
Jones had his third not great game in a row, but this one wasn’t nearly as bad overall as the previous two, though his play on the MacKinnon goal was pretty terrible. Granted, MacKinnon is one of the best players in the league and it’s often impossible to stop him when he goes on a drive like that.
Part of why Jones might have performed better was because when paired with Wyatt Kaiser (11:16), the pair got softer, more offensively skewed minutes. When Jones was with Kaiser, the Blackhawks owned 70.59 percent of shot attempts and 82.59 percent of expected goals; when Jones was with Vlasic (5:13), the Blackhawks had only 9.09 percent of the shot attempts and 21.03 percent of expected goals. Obviously the assignments were harder with Vlasic, but the duo of Vlasic and Murphy basically broke even for shot attempts (15-14) and they had 53.90 percent of expected goals while facing the same quality of competition. Maybe it’s a good idea to lower Jones’ minutes (he still played nearly 26 minutes) and give him softer minutes just until he works out his kinks.
On the other hand, TJ Brodie really should be sent to the press box already. Like, stinker after stinker from that guy. Woof.
It’s probably time to break up Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi because they don’t really click. They got chances when on the ice tonight — Bertuzzi had three shots and two scoring chances while Hall had two and one, respectively — but they’re a little out of sync from each other. Their usual third, Kurashev, was moved up to wing with Bedard and Teravainen’s top line, so the second line did get a little change, but it’s probably not enough. The question is how can Richardson swap things around without breaking what works elsewhere? It’s an interesting dilemma, especially since the lack of legit centers further complicates line construction.
Mrazek had a good game tonight as well, stopping 24 of 26 shots, though his workload was lighter in general. He faced 19 shots in the final 40 minutes, but as mentioned above, the team in front helped him out a lot.
Looking ahead at the Blackhawks next opponent, the Sharks just won their first game tonight after rallying back with three goals to win in overtime. Both bottom-dwellers will be riding high on Thursday.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Ryan Donato (CHI) — 2 goals, 1 assist
- Lukas Reichel (CHI) — 1 goal
- Craig Smith (CHI) — 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks have a couple of days off before heading to San Jose to face the Sharks on Thursday at 9:30 p.m.