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Blackhawks blow 3 goal lead, lose 4-3 to Blues

Posted on by Matt Lucas

The Blackhawks couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead once again and lost 4-3 to the Blues on Saturday at Enterprise Center.

Corey Crawford kept the score from being lopsided with 34 saves on 38 shots.

Brandon Saad collected his first multi-goal game this season and Patrick Kane scored his 15th goal.

Chicago went 0-for-4 on the power play, including failing to convert on a 5-on-3, which broke their five game streak of converting on the man advantage.

How it Happened

In the first shift of the game the Blues escaped from a puck battle near their offensive zone blue line on a 3-on-1 after Connor Murphy fell, but the Blackhawks were lucky Jayden Schwartz passed up a great shooting opportunity.

Not much later Brent Seabrook took a delay of the game penalty for flipping the puck out of play in the defensive zone. In the waning seconds of the penalty kill, Crawford made a nice pad stop and Chicago was able to escape a risky first six minutes.

Crawford continued to get pelted by shots and scoring chances the rest of the opening period, but was on fire stopping 13 shots and five high danger scoring chances by the Blues.

Here’s one on a Ryan O’Reilly wraparound and a backhand by MacKenzie MacEachern from the low slot:

Ryan Carpenter had the best scoring chance for the Blackhawks in the first period on a 2-on-1 with David Kampf, but his rocket of a wrister nailed the crossbar.

Right away in the second period Dominik Kubalik made a nifty breakout pass to Jonathan Toews for a 2-on-1 with Saad, but Jordan Binnington deflected Toews’ shot with his blocker. After the resulting faceoff, Toews won a puck battle and found Saad wide open in the high left slot. Saad kicked the pass impressively to his stick and fired it pass a screened Binnington for his ninth goal of the season:

Then Chicago was awarded a 5-on-3 opportunity, but Binnington made a nice sliding stop on Kane’s one-timer and Toews just missed burying a rebound on the 5-on-4 that followed.

Crawford came up big again in the second period making eleven saves, including this quick slide to the left post and stop on David Perron with 11:53 to go in the second period:

On a Blackhawks penalty kill late in the middle frame, Connor Murphy and Olli Maatta sacrificed the bodies and made a couple nice blocks:

The third period couldn’t have started any better for the Blackhawks who buried two goals to get a 3-0 lead.

Toews stole the puck from Jay Bouwmeester and snapped a backdoor pass to Saad for the winger’s second goal of the game:

Then Kane did what Showtime does best, sniping one from the high slot after a nice set up by Dylan Strome:

The rest of the final period was a disaster. St. Louis scored four straight goals. The first due to an Alex Nylander turnover in the high slot of the defensive zone and then three defensive zone breakdowns:

What an awful loss.

Game Charts

Three Stars

1. Robert Thomas (STL) – Three primary assists

2. Corey Crawford (CHI) – 34 saves, 12 high danger saves

3. Jonathan Toews (CHI) – Two primary assists, three shots, won 17-of-20 faceoffs

What’s next?

The Blackhawks host the Wild at 6 p.m. Sunday at United Center.

Talking Points