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Exhale (Shoop Shoop): Islanders 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO)

An OT point to end 2025.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks erased a two-goal deficit after the first to earn a point, but ultimately fell 3-2 in a shootout to the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.

The Islanders opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game. After forcing a turnover, Simon Holmstrom dropped a centering pass to Calum Ritchie, who snapped a wrister past Spencer Knight to give New York an early 1-0 lead.

Bo Horvat doubled the Islanders’ advantage on the power play at 12:08 of the first period. Stationed in the circle, Horvat ripped a one-timer home off a slick backhand feed from Mat Barzal to make it 2-0.

The Blackhawks finally cut into the deficit at 15:37 of the second period. A wide open Teuvo Teravainen collected a crisp pass from Oliver Moore in the right circle and fired it through David Rittich to pull Chicago within one. Credit to Artyom Levshunov with driving towards the net before getting the puck to Moore to initiate the goal.

Nick Lardis tied the game 2–2 on the power play with just three seconds remaining in the second period. Moore again played the setup man, threading a beautiful cross-ice pass to Lardis, whose one-timer deflected off traffic in front and into the net.

After a scoreless third period and overtime, the Blackhawks ultimately fell 3–2 in the shootout, with Horvat scoring the lone goal for the Islanders to decide it.

Notes

As mentioned in the preview, the Blackhawks and Islanders are closer statistically than the standings suggest, meaning this game was always likely to hinge on effort and structure from Chicago. The Blackhawks brought both, playing well enough to win, but ultimately fell just short of pulling it off.

Early on, it looked like the Islanders were going to dictate the night: they came out flying, pressuring hard in the opening minutes while scoring quickly and keeping the Blackhawks on their heels through much of the first 10 minutes. The Blackhawks pushed back but, despite stronger play from the home side in the back half of the period, the Islanders struck again on the power play. It could have been demoralizing, but the Blackhawks didn’t let it linger, finishing the period strong. By the end of the first, the game was nearly even analytically, with Chicago holding the edge in shot attempts (20-19) and expected goals (55.74 percent). They did struggle to get pucks through to the net, managing just seven shots on goal.

That momentum carried into the second period for the Blackhawks. The game settled into fairly low-event hockey early, but the Blackhawks began to tilt the ice around the midway point and controlled play for most of the frame. Shot volume and quality were limited (42.9 percent of the expected goals), but that was basically true for both teams. The key difference was possession: Chicago had the puck more (65.52 percent of shot attempts), kept the Islanders defending, and capitalized on some of their better chances to tie the game. Even with quality slightly down, the Blackhawks were the better team in the second, and a few posts or crossbar hits were all that kept them from heading into the third with a lead.

The third period initially followed a similar script, with the Blackhawks maintaining pace, managing possession, and playing a generally sound defensive game. That shifted midway through the period, when the Islanders pushed back and swung the balance of play. Chicago was out-attempted 17-11 and controlled just 39.72 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. Still, the Blackhawks deserve credit for limiting shots on goal — only five reached the net — even if their own offense stalled somewhat, producing just three shots themselves. Despite the less-than-ideal back half of the third, the Blackhawks looked like they might score in the waning seconds with some good pressure on net, so they definitely were fighting to the end.

Overtime was genuinely entertaining, and the Blackhawks had a slight edge in the underlying numbers. They led in shot attempts (4-3), shots on goal (2-1), and expected goals (55.19 percent). The shootout didn’t go their way, which was obviously disappointing, but there’s little to nitpick beyond the final result. Overall, the Blackhawks played hard, were the better team for much of the night, and showed they can still play with teams higher in the standings to them — as long as they’re willing to put forth the energy and fight for it, which they did tonight.

Coach Jeff Blashill and Oliver Moore both pointed to the Blackhawks’ slow start as a factor in the final outcome:

The Blackhawks play tonight was made more impressive by the fact that the team lost another center: Jason Dickinson was ruled out ahead of the second period with a muscular aggravation. It does not sound overly serious — Blashill said Dickinson is day-to-day — though he may not be available on Thursday.

One of the clear highlights of the night was the play of Lardis and Moore, who were arguably the Blackhawks’ best forwards, which is exactly what you want to see from a rebuilding team. Blashill has gradually eased both into NHL action, keeping their minutes fairly low, but with Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar sidelined by injury, the Blackhawks needed to give Lardis and Moore more runway. And they took off with that increased ice time, showing the same spark the duo displayed in Rockford. Moore drove play with his transition game and playmaking while Lardis was a shooting machine, leading the team with eight shot attempts, five shots on goal, and five scoring chances. Additionally, all four of Lardis shot attempts to 5-on-5 were scoring chances, and Moore set up all of them with incredible passing plays.

Blashill called out Moore’s play in particular as confident, using his skating and vision in smart ways:

Lardis and Moore’s line with Teuvo Teravainen was also among the most effective statistically: in roughly nine minutes at 5-on-5, the trio controlled 69.23 percent of the shot attempts and 75.10 percent of the expected goals. Yes, they faced a lower quality of competition than some of the other lines, but that’s simply smart deployment from Blashill.

The other line that dominated its matchup was Ryan Donato, Nick Foligno, and Ilya Mikheyev. The trio was only together for 6:25, but still posted excellent numbers, finishing with 69.23 percent of the shot attempts and a whopping 87.08 percent of the expected goals. Considering they were matched most often against the Islanders’ highest quality competition, this was especially strong work from what became a makeshift checking line after Jason Dickinson went down. Foligno ended up with the highest individual expect goal total (0.39) because two of his scoring chances were high-danger. Mikheyev also had a high-danger chance, but he couldn’t even get the chance on goal, unfortunately. And Donato had a bit of a weird stat line: he led the team in shot attempts with five at 5-on-5 but did not record a single shot on goal.

The other primary line of Ryan Greene, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Andre Burakovsky was also very effective, especially considering they were most often matched up against the Islanders’ highest quality competition. They finished at an even 50 percent of the shot attempts and held a significant edge in quality, controlling 67.95 percent of the expected goals, though that figure is somewhat skewed by the low-event nature of their minutes. Greene recorded three shot attempts but just one scoring chance, Bertuzzi had two attempts with no scoring chances, and Burakovsky finished with one attempt and one scoring chance. Even so, the line did an excellent job shutting down Islanders chances, which is impressive given the usage and matchup.

This was another strong offensive game from Levshunov. He had two shot attempts that both rang off the post, made several sharp passes throughout the night, and nearly set up a tap-in for a teammate. Some will look at the Game Score chart below and see him near the bottom, but that’s largely a function of the team context. The Blackhawks controlled just 33.45 percent of the expected goals with Levshunov on the ice, which drags down the overall score, even though it still captures how impactful he was individually on the offensive side — i.e. the best offensive defensemen this game. Even with some mistakes, the positives are more prevalent and meaningful now.

Levshunov has now hit five posts or crossbars this season. He’s consistently beating defenders, but with a little more patience and composure on his releases, those near-misses should start turning into goals. And I’ll die on this hill: Levshunov looks more confident when paired with Wyatt Kaiser than with any other partner so far so, please: let’s keep those two together.

Blashill acknowledged how tonight was one of Levshunov’s best offensive games of the season, even if there are still areas of improvement from the rookie defenseman:

“He was in on the attack a ton, made a ton of plays. You’re going to take a little good with the bad when you get that, but we’re OK with that. I guarantee his positives outweighed his negatives tonight. To me, that’s what you judge players on. Not many positives or how many negatives, but where’s the balance? And his balance was on the right side tonight … It was definitely his best offensive game, and closer to what we’ve been talking to him about doing. We want to push him to attack the game more, and he certainly did that.”

As mentioned above, Wyatt Kaiser did an excellent job serving as the steady, defensive foundation that allowed Levshunov to springboard offensively. His impact isn’t always obvious in this role, but it amounts to a largely mistake-free performance and strong coverage for his more aggressive partner.

Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier were once again the steadiest pairing on the back end. They don’t drive play in the same way the Kaiser–Levshunov duo does, but they consistently defended well and maintained possession, giving the forwards a solid platform to do their work.

Finally, Knight was solid in net, though he did not have to necessarily have to do that much work. The team in front limiting chances against really helped keep his workload lighter, which is nice to see. He finished with fairly average stats across the board, including a .905 save percentage and 0.27 goals saved above expected.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Bo Horvat (NYI) — 1 goal, shootout winner
  2. Oliver Moore (CHI) — 2 assist
  3. Callum Ritchie (NYI) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks host the Dallas Stars in a quick rematch on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.

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