Don’t look now, but the Chicago Blackhawks have a streak going for the first time this season after defeating the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Saturday night.
The Blackhawks went up 1-0 at 4:43 of the first period after a shot from Nikita Zaitsev from the right circle hit Anthony Beauvillier in front and deflected past Jordan Binnington.
Alex Vlasic made it 2-0 Blackhawks less than five minutes later as his long shot made it through traffic to the back of the net.
The Blackhawks scored their third goal about 15 minutes into the second period as Jason Dickinson deflected Zaitsev’s shot-pass into a yawning net.
Oskar Sunqvist spoiled the shutout bid with a goal in the third but the Blackhawks held on for the 3-1 win.
Notes
- This was one of the best starts for the Blackhawks this season: owned 62.5 percent of the shot attempts, 57.14 of the shots on goal, and 68.93 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 in the first period. Honestly, the Blackhawks could have probably had another two goals or so in the opening 20 minutes if not for some missed shots.
- The second period was more tilted towards the Blues — the Blackhawks allowed 19 scoring chances against, eight of which were high-danger by location — so Mrazek needed to be on top of his game. The Blues dominated puck possession in the third as well, but that’s to be expected when trailing by three goals.
- Speaking of Mrazek, during his current hot streak, he has stopped 85 of 86 shots and was going over seven periods without allowing a goal. He would have had another shutout if not for that dumb move by Seth Jones on the power play.
- It’s kind of funny it took so long for the credit on the first goal to change — Zaitsev’s shot was going to miss by a good 5-6 feet if it didn’t hit someone in front and Beauvillier had good inside position on Scott Perunovich. But it does show that anything can happen when a team shoots and crashes the net at the same time.
- Now, that shot-pass by Zaitsev was a beauty. He had a really good game overall, which is a sentence not often written around here. Offensively, he had some jump, and he made some decent moves defensively.
- Credit the line of Reichel, Reese Johnson, and Entwistle for the second goal with their sustained zone time. The Blackhawks are not typically a good cycle team, but they were in the zone for a while — enough time to swap out their defensive pair midway — with a few good opportunities before the goal.
- Honestly, several of the younger forwards looked pretty good in this game. Not all of them will make it long-term with the Blackhawks, but it’s nice to see some umph from forwards under 25 not named Connor Bedard.
- Louis Crevier picked up his first NHL point on Vlasic’s goal. The large defender has looked pretty good so far in his cup of coffee with the Blackhawks, though he’s not exactly being given tough assignments yet. Still, Crevier is yet another contender as a potential future Blackhawk when they’re hopefully back on top.
- Dickinson is now one goal away from scoring a career-high (10). If he keeps up this productive pace, there’s going to be some debate down the stretch on what to do with him at the trade deadline: do the Blackhawks flip him for an asset or extend him a few more seasons? They’re going to need vets who are useful as more young players impact the team. This can be applied to Mrazek, too.
- The curse is over: the Blackhawks have not only won their first back-to-back set of games, they also won when I was recapping them.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — .974 save percentage on 39 shots
- Nikita Zaitsev (CHI) — 2 assists
- Alex Vlasic (CHI) — 1 goal
What’s Next
No rest for the wicked as the Blackhawks host the Washington Capitals Sunday for a 6 p.m. start.