The Chicago Blackhawks closed out the home portion of their 2023 preseason schedule with a 3-2 overtime loss on Thursday night at the United Center.
It was the Foligno Show in the first period, with the opposing brothers each scoring in the opening 20 minutes. First, Marcus Foligno put the Wild on the board at the 2:28 mark of the game:
About seven minutes later, Nick Foligno answered for the Blackhawks to tie the game:
In the middle of the second period, Ryan Donato picked off a Minnesota pass and tapped it forward to Taylor Hall, who scored on the breakaway to make it 2-1 Chicago lead:
The ice tilted in Minnesota’s favor during the third period as the Wild chased a tying goal (check the game charts below to see just how heavily they tilted) and all that pressure finally broke the Blackhawks’ defensive dam when a Wyatt Kaiser wipeout ultimately led to a Pat Maroon goal:
After a scoreless overtime period, Minnesota won in the shootout with Mats Zuccarello scoring and Marc-Andre Fleury stopping the Chicago trio of shooters: Bedard, Hall and Reichel.
Notes
- If Kaiser blowing a tire is what it’s going to take for opponents to score a goal against him, then he should have a pretty solid NHL career. For someone with the skating ability of Kaiser, plays like that aren’t going to happen too often. The game cards below were not kind to Kaiser but nothing too discouraging for the young blue-liner.
- Connor Bedard is yet to score a non-empty-net goal. Feels like we should say that now because it will not be true much longer.
- Although Bedard did not score, he did draw three penalties. There will probably always be some manner in which Bedard contributes positively to a game.
- Reese Johnson probably does not have a spot on this team out of training camp because of all the additions to the forward group but give him credit for going down swinging — literally. He seems like a logical player to get called up during the season should injuries become an issue among fourth-liners but he seems destined for Rockford now.
- If Arvid Soderblom plays consistently well like that in the regular season, it’s going to make for an interesting discussion on who is Chicago’s No. 1 goalie by season’s end. And that would be a very, very good development for the team going forward.
- An interesting note from the first period, courtesy of Sun-Times reporter Ben Pope:
- Raddysh had 20 goals last season but did not seem to do much to suggest that he’s going to be part of the team’s top-six in the future. There does seem to be a decent NHL player within Raddysh, though, and adding the ability to play PK minutes to his resumé would be one way to ensure he has a roster spot in Chicago or somewhere else.
- Kevin Korchisnki continues to be a blast to watch in the offensive zone, especially during the second period of this game. We’ll see how that translates into the regular season, though.
- Overall, not a bad preseason slate. Saturday’s roster seems like it’ll be more Rockford-bound players, so having this lineup play a decent game against an opponent that also sent what was basically its “A” team to Chicago is a solid way to cap off this part of the schedule. The real tests arrive next week.
Game Charts
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Three Stars
- Marc-Andre Fleury (MIN) — 27 saves, 3-for-3 in shootout
- Nick Foligno (CHI) — 1 goal
- DJ Moore (CHI) — probably scored a touchdown during this game, too