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Here It Goes Again: Blackhawks 3, Blues 2

The preseason ends with a W.

Posted on by L_B_R
(Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire)

The Chicago Blackhawks held off a late push from the St. Louis Blues to earn a 3-2 win on Saturday night, picking up their second victory of the preseason.

The Blackhawks opened the scoring 6:27 into the first period. After a faceoff, Tyler Bertuzzi rang a shot off the iron, and Anton Frondell collected the rebound in the slot and fired it past Joel Hofer to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.

Ian Cole doubled the lead seven minutes into the second period. As he exited the penalty box, Cole picked up the puck and broke in alone before beating Hofer for a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0.

Roman Kantserov extended the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal midway through the second. After the Blackhawks gained the zone, Bertuzzi sent a quick saucer pass perfectly onto the stick of a streaking Kantserov, who finished the play with a slick backhand move.

The Blues cut the deficit to two with less than a minute remaining in the middle frame. Jonatan Berggren stripped Ryan Donato of the puck, stepped into the circle and fired a shot inside the near post to make it 3-1.

With their goalie pulled and 1:16 left in the game, the Blues got within one after a wrister from Colton Parayko beat Spencer Knight.

But that was as close as the Blues got.

Notes

Even though the Blackhawks were on the wrong side of the shot metrics in the first two periods, it was much closer than the previous game, and they honestly felt like the team with more jump. Chicago was only out-attempted by five, outshot by three, and had two fewer high-danger chances in the first two periods at 5-on-5, a testament to keeping the quantity and quality reasonably tight. Considering the Blackhawks have been a porous team for the last several years, we shouldn’t expect immediate winning when it comes to possession, but I’ll certainly take baby-step improvement. Plus, two of the three goals were due to the Blackhawks’ pressure and quick strikes and showed off some young skill, so what’s not to like?

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks seemed to go into turtle mode in the latter half of the third period, which is always frustrating because it feels like it’s asking for trouble. The trouble didn’t strike until the Blues pulled their goalie, and St. Louis couldn’t mount a full comeback, but it would be nice if the Blackhawks wouldn’t roll over and show their underbelly quite so early in a period when up by only a couple of goals. Chicago ended up owning just 28.57 percent of the shot attempts and 15.11 percent of the expected goals (gross) in that final period.

Still, a win is a win, and there were some good-to-great individual performances that made this game decently fun to watch. Note: the penalty kill might be brought up quite a bit because this was another game with too many penalties.

Spencer Knight had a significantly easier night than Arvid Soderblom did on Thursday, but he was still quite good when needed, especially on the penalty kill and in the third period when things got intense.

That Kantserov goal was a beaut, wasn’t it? He wasn’t as noticeable in this game as the last one outside of that goal, but he had some nice transition and passing moments. His line in general was weak, but it was also mostly a placeholder. Here is a close up of the goal:

Interestingly, Nick Lardis — who was on Kantserov’s line for the most part — looked as good in this game as he did in the last one despite the overall line being kind of meh. Finding the right combination for him could really unlock his potential.

The other goal that was obviously exciting was Frondell’s, which was just a nice heads-up play by him. He scored a lot of goals like that in Sweden, just following the play and being in the right place to use his lethal shot. This was Frondell’s best game of the preseason, as he was good on offense and excellent on the penalty kill.

Bowen Byram and Alex Vlasic were quite good together this game, working off each other very well. Vlasic did a great job covering whenever Byram jumped into the play, which Byram did often and with some strong results. The confidence Byram has with the puck is something we haven’t seen from a Blackhawks defenseman since Seth Jones left and he played nearly 27 minutes, so it seems Blashill might lean on him in the way that Jones was, too.

Levshunov and Rinzel had their best games of the preseason, though that wasn’t really a difficult bar to clear for the latter. Nothing too flashy for either — outside of the stick save by Rinzel late after a Cole turnover — but they were steady with few mistakes. I’ll take that. Levshunov is another player I liked a lot when shorthanded.

Speaking of Cole, he was good to start, but he definitely got worse as the game continued. Hopefully that was due to rust because he’s been an effective, quality defender for many years, and I think he could be a stabilizing presence for any of the young defensemen. Not sure his goal should have counted, but oh well.

It will be interesting to see how the final forward spots shake out. Defensively, Cole Smith and Teuvo Teravainen should probably make the team — especially the latter, who was easily the best forward on the penalty kill. Andrew Mangiapane had a decent game, too. Donato has been trash, so he’d be the odd one out if it was me, at least to start.

Games Charts

Three Stars

  1. Roman Kantserov (CHI) — 1 goal
  2. Anton Frondell (CHI) — 1 goal
  3. Spencer Knight (CHI) — .935 save percentage on 31 shots

What’s Next

The Blackhawks kickoff the regular season in Vegas when they take on the Golden Knights on Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m.

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