Well they weren’t going to lose all of their remaining games, right?
The Blackhawks snapped their 8-game losing streak on Saturday afternoon at the United Center with a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Nick Foligno put the home side ahead with this goal at the 13:29 mark of the first, capping some neat tic-tac-toe passing from linemates Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev.
Tim Stutzle answered a few minutes later for Ottawa to tie the game at one:
Chicago’s penalty kill has been decent of late, but Jacob Chychrun put that to bed with this Ottawa PPG near the middle of the second period to make it a 2-1 Senators lead.
A few minutes later, Bedard did Bedard things and the game was tied again at two.
Bedard thought he had his second of the game in the final period, but this majestic goal was overturned following a review for offsides:
Jason Dickinson scored a goal that counted, though, poking him this loose puck with 1:52 remaining for the game-winner:
Notes
- Pretty much every Hawks player was under water in terms of possession in this game, so we can again give a heavy dose of credit for this win to Petr Mrazek, who remains one of the primary reasons the Blackhawks win, on the rare occasions they do win.
- That said, it’s not like Mrazek had a lengthy highlight reel of saves in this game, so perhaps some credit can be given to the Blackhawks defensive efforts in limiting the higher quality chances for a team that entered this one with the No. 8 scoring offense in the NHL.
- There’s still plenty for Kevin Korchinski to learn in his development, so the hope is that future lessons go as well as the one he learned in this game:
- Jason Dickinson is going to be an interesting player to watch over the next few seasons. The odds of him being at or near the team lead in goals in future seasons seems unlikely, and there’s also some market correction probably coming for his season shot percentage of 19.5 percent over a career mark of 10.3. But his possession numbers are decent relative to the rest of the Chicago roster and he’s doing that despite having the lowest offensive zone start percentage among Blackhawks forwards. Chicago’s scored 33 goals at 5-on-5 with him on the ice and only allowed 24, which isn’t something to be ignored on a team this bad. There’s probably a really good checking-line center on a contending team there, factoring in his PK time as well. But it’s hard to play him in that spot without a noticeable drop from his cap hit of $4.25 million, which will be in place for the next two seasons. He turns 29 this summer, so he may not be around for the duration of this (hopefully) looming run, but he might have a spot beyond that two-year contract extension he recently signed.
- So Bedard and Kurashev can just skate together for the rest of the season now, right? Feels like anyone could be the third linemate there and a puck will bounce off of them and into the net at some point. Case in point: Foligno’s goal.
- No need to explore anything else, though. They won. We’ll take it.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Jason Dickinson (CHI) — GWG
- Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
- Philipp Kurashev (CHI) — 2 assists
What’s Next
The Blackhawks hit the road for their only away game this month on Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, with puck drop coming at 6 p.m.