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It’s Such A Good Feeling: Blackhawks 3, Penguins 1

Chicago’s five-game losing skid is done!

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks ended their five-game losing streak on Sunday night with a 3-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the United Center.

After a scoreless first period, the Blackhawks went up 1-0 on a shorthanded goal with 1:05 remaining in the second period. Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teravainen had a little give-and-go on the rush before Nazar whipped a wrist shot past Alex Nedeljkovic.

Ilya Mikheyev doubled the Blackhawks lead midway through the third period. Connor Bedard got the puck to a streaking Mikheyev near the right boards before the latter sped in close to score, making it 2-0 Chicago.

The Penguins got on the board while on the power play with 5:24 remaining in the third period. A quick high-low-high passing play ended with Bryan Rush setting up Rickard Rakell in the slot, cutting the lead to 2-1.

Luckily, Mikheyev got his second of the game with an empty-net goal with 56 seconds remaining to make it 3 – 1, ending the Penguins chances of a comeback.

Notes

This felt like a very quick game, right? The first period, in particular, just zoomed by, thanks to the lack of penalties or whistles in general. It didn’t feel like the Blackhawks were necessarily outplayed in the first period, but a lot of their chances were one-and-done or lower quality. The Penguins didn’t feel like they had much sustained pressure or a lot of dangerous looks either, but more than the Blackhawks. The period was over fast, but the period was sleepy in a lot of ways. The Blackhawks ended up on the wrong side of the shot metrics by a decent margin mostly — out-attempted 21-16, outshot 8-6, out-chanced 16-8, and owned just 34.06 percent of the expected goals — but it didn’t seem as lopsided as those numbers suggest.

The second period was interesting: how fast it seemed to go by continued, even with two penalties called, but the Blackhawks definitely were getting their chances more than the Penguins despite possession being pretty even. Chicago was especially strong to start the period and then scored shorthanded when the Penguins were pushing back. Shot attempts were 17-14 Penguins, but shots were even at 8-8 and Blackhawks had the edge in expected goals with 61 percent share. Honestly, the Blackhawks probably deserved at least one 5-on-5 goal for those efforts, but Nedeljkovic was quite good in net for the Penguins.

The Blackhawks found themselves in a similar position as the last two games: leading the game going into the third period. Unlike those, the Blackhawks didn’t allow their opponent to take over, battling back every time the Penguins tried to regain some control. Now, obviously, this season’s Penguins aren’t close to the quality of teams like the Colorado Avalanche or Washington Capitals, but it’s still nice to see the Blackhawks close out a game. The Blackhawks finished the period by having the better of shot attempts (15-12) and shots on goal (11-8) while the Penguins had a very small lead in scoring chances (6-5) and high danger chances (4-3). All in all, a good close-out period by the Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks ended their five-game losing streak, ended Sidney Crosby’s 12-game point streak, and the loss tonight officially eliminated the Penguins from the playoffs.

This was a solid night for both netminders, too. The team in front did an admirable job helping out, but Knight needed to be on his game to keep the Penguins from gaining any momentum on the scoreboard. He ended with a .966 save percentage after facing nearly 30 shots.

Only one line on the Blackhawks was above water in terms of shot attempt possession, and that was the line with Lukas Reichel, Joe Veleno, and Nick Foligno. The Blackhawks out-attempted 12-3, outshot 6-1, out-chanced 6-2 the Penguins and had 85.04 percent of the expected goals when the Blackhawks fourth-line trio was on the ice. They matched most against the Penguins third line, which hasn’t been productive for the Penguins much this season, but the Blackhawks group still ate their assignment well.

On the other side, the Nazar, Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi line was basically the opposite: shot attempts (16-5), shots on goal (10-3), and scoring chances (11-3) were all lopsidedly in favor of the Penguins. The Blackhawks had one of the single lowest expected goals shares (11.99 percent) for a line this year when this group was on the ice at 5-on-5. Their opponent was the Penguins’ second line of Geno Malkin, Richard Rakell, and Ville Koivunen line, so pretty high-quality again, but the Blackhawks were railroaded most of the game.

Still, despite the line floundering some, Nazar by himself was one of the brightest spots in the game. Not only did he score a shorthanded goal — finally finishing a breakaway — he led the team in shots on goal (4) and scoring chances (4). He’s going to be near the bottom of the Game Score card before because of how the team on the ice played around him, but he arguably was a top-three offensive impact on the team behind Mikheyev and Bedard. Teravainen also had solid individual offensive impact, but his was related more to passing than shot metrics.

The other two Blackhawks lines of Bedard, Donato, and Mikheyev and Oliver Moore, Landon Slaggert, and Philipp Kurashev were both fairly even with their Penguins counterparts. Moore’s line actually had the edge in attempts (8-7) and shots on goal (5-2) but didn’t really generate much quality (32.67 percent of expected goals). Bedard’s line was the opposite: out-attempted (14-12) and outshot (8-5) but had more scoring chances (7-6) and was even on high-danger ones (2-2). Moore’s line took on the Pens’ fourth, which is more defense-focused, while Bedard got the top line with Crosby.

There has been some concern from the fanbase about Bedard’s lack of scoring lately, but it’s not really a worry for me. Teams are always cheating to him right now because he’s the biggest threat, but tonight showed that could be costly — Mikheyev’s first goal was partially due to this fact. Mikheyev has been good for the Blackhawks this season, but just think of how more open Bedard will be in the future with someone even better on his line. Bedard is still showing great playmaking ability, impacting the game, and he’ll come out of this adversity-riddled season as a better player.

Speaking of impact, let’s talk about Rinzel. The young defender picked up his first NHL point with a secondary assist tonight, but he had a lot of little moments that really showed off his skill. He controlled the puck when skating in or out of the zone, displayed quick and smart passing, disrupted plays in the right way, and more. Not a perfect game, but a continuation of really good performances so far in this short sample size. It really will be interesting to see whether Rinzel makes the team out of camp next season or spends a little time in Rockford.

Levshunov’s passing was better this game than the last two, like the pass below is quite nice. However, the kid still having some Goldilocks issues when it comes to timing on basically everything. Sometimes he’s correct, but often he’ll be just off enough on a shot or pass or coverage. Still, the skills are obvious, especially his skating, which he used pretty well to compensate for mistakes he made. And he remains rather adept when it comes to transition play. Let him cook a little more developmentally — there’s no reason to rush him when there’s a plethora of other good young defenders are available — and he could be a stud.

The other young defenders were fine as well, just not as noticeable as the two above. Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser both acted as the steady, more stay-at-home types for their explorative partners and Kevin Korchinski had a quiet game. All of them skated quite well, which is just fun in general to see considering how plodding the defense had been just earlier in the season.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Ilya Mikheyev (CHI) — 2 goals
  2. Spencer Knight (CHI) — .966 save percentage
  3. Frank Nazar (CHI) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks take on the Penguins again on Tuesday, heading to Pittsburgh for a 6 p.m. game start.

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