After a wild news day over at 1901 W. Madison, the Chicago Blackhawks ended Tuesday with two points after a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken at the United Center.
Chicago looked poised to run away with this one early on, as Boris Katchouk opened the scoring at the 8:54 mark, a sequence started by a Connor Bedard zone entry and shot on goal:
About 90 seconds later, Jason Dickinson continued his hot streak with a goal that made it a 2-0 Chicago lead:
Seattle picked itself up off the mat and tied the game before the first intermission, though. Matty Beniers scored first:
Followed by an Alex Wennberg shorty in the final minute of the period:
Early in the second, Tyler Johnson put the Blackhawks back in front after cashing in on this cross-ice pass from Taylor Raddysh. Credit to Lukas Reichel here with a neat little pass to Raddysh that gave the Blackhawks clean zone entry, too:
Chicago’s lead was back to two goals in the middle of the period after a strong forecheck from the fourth line led to Joey Anderson assisting on a MacKenzie Entwistle goal:
Seattle wasn’t done, though. Tye Kartye scored with 13:09 left in the third to make it a one-goal game again:
But the Blackhawks held from there to preserve the victory, which included a 63-second kill of a two-man deficit late in the third period.
That was way, way more fun than everything else which happened on Tuesday, so let’s talk about it some more.
Notes
- No points for Bedard in this game and he was credited with just one shot on goal. But that initial Chicago goal came soon after the aforementioned shot, and the whole play happened because he gained zone entry to start the offensive sequence. Even when he’s not registering on the scoresheet in a big way, he can still affect the game.
- Petr Mrazek continues to be very good, especially when the Blackhawks are shorthanded. Darren Pang pointed out on the broadcast how well Mrazek was anticipating when shots were coming during that 5-on-3, which is a sign of a goalie who’s feeling pretty good about his own play.
- Joey Anderson probably won’t be around for the long haul here and it’s unlikely that the Blackhawks have suddenly uncovered something that wasn’t known while he spent the last five seasons bouncing between the NHL and the AHL. But he’s been incredibly noticeable on the forecheck since he was called up last week and that work led to his assists in this game. Credit where it’s due for seizing an opportunity.
- That line of Anderson, Entwistle and Dickinson skated 9:58 at 5-on-5 and had a 13-4 advantage in shot attempts, 6-2 in shots on goal, 6-2 in scoring chances and scored two goals without allowing any, all adding up to a whopping 92.05 expected goal share. That’ll do.
- The Kevin Korchinski turnover on the power-play drop pass, which led to Wennberg’s SHG, is the kind of mistake that’s probably going to happen while a 19-year-old is navigating his first professional hockey season. It’d be interesting to see if Korchinski is given license to counter teams anticipating the drop pass by faking it and speeding into the zone, because he has the hands and feet to make something out of such a move.
- Count this game as another feather in the cap of Alex Vlasic. He started in the offensive zone just 38.46 percent of the time in this game, which was the second lowest rate among Hawks blue-liners. But in 15:49 of ice time, he had a 70.36 percent goal share that was only eclipsed by the 70.97 of his primary D partner, Seth Jones. That duo was the first out there for the crucial 5-on-3 late in the game and Vlasic was a fixture on the ice as the game returned to 5-on-5 and also when Seattle emptied its net at the end. Vlasic skated 23:00 overall, again second only to Jones at 23:50.
- Seattle may have outshot the Blackhawks 36-23 in the game and 12-3 in the final period, but it didn’t seem like the Kraken generated a ton of golden chances outside of their power play while chasing a one-goal deficit. And the credit for that can go to the entire Blackhawks team for its collective defensive effort.
- A good win over a pretty good team on an otherwise weird/strange/bleak day. We’ll take it.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Joey Anderson (CHI) — 2 assists
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — 33 saves on 36 shots
- MacKenzie Entwistle (CHI) — 1 goal
What’s Next
The Blackhawks hit the road to Michigan for a game against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night at 6 p.m.