The Chicago Blackhawks had a busy Sunday night: Chris Chelios’ No. 7 was officially retired in the United Center rafters, the Blackhawks blew a lead in the final five minutes of the game, and then lost 3-2 to the Detroit Red Wings courtesy of a Patrick Kane overtime goal.
The Red Wings opened the scoring with 41 seconds remaining in the first period. After a quick give-and-go with Christian Fischer, Daniel Sprong scored while falling to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
MacKenzie Entwistle tied the game 1-1 at 3:29 of the second period. Reese Johnson’s shot just missed, he went behind the net to retrieve and then passed to Entwistle in the slot, who then shot into an open net for the goal.
The Blackhawks went up 2-1 while on the power play with 2:08 left in the middle frame after Connor Bedard’s shot deflected off Nick Foligno and in.
The Red Wings re-tied the game thanks to Alex DeBrincat banking a shot in off Petr Mrazek from a sharp angle below the goal line.
Then — who else? — Patrick Kane on a breakaway put this one away for Detroit less than two minutes into overtime. Credit DeBrincat with a good stick lift and steal from Philipp Kurashev near his own net before finding a streaking Kane at center ice.
Notes:
- The Blackhawks were exactly even in terms of shot attempts but actually had a slight lead in quality of chances (62.77 expected goals percentage) in the first two periods, so it was one of their best 40 minutes this season at 5-on-5.
- Unfortunately, they kind of took their foot off the gas in the third — well, mostly the final 10 minutes — and allowed the Red Wings to have the puck a lot more to the tune of 61.54 percent of the shot attempts. The Blackhawks still had a minimal edge in quality chances (3-2) but were on the wrong side of general scoring chances (13-5). It felt pretty inevitable that the Wings would score, and of course it’d be DeBrincat.
- Overtime was very even, but like a movie script, it was seemed like it was going to be either Bedard (new generational talent) or Kane (Chicago legend) scoring in overtime, and it just happened to be the latter.
- It’s hard to be too upset about the ending to that game, honestly. The Blackhawks were competitive throughout most of the game, Bedard picked up another point in his race to the Calder, and the Blackhawks are one step closer to having the best lottery odds for the NHL Draft.
- Seth Jones has been quietly been quite the effective No. 1 defensemen recently. He’s been generally have a pretty solid season considering how terrible the Blackhawks are in general, but he’s been one of the best for the team since the turn of the new year in a steady, understated way. Haven’t seen enough props to him this season honestly.
- The Bedard hit on Kane was pretty amusing, not going to lie. Mostly because Bedard is not a physical hitter like that and Kane doesn’t typically let himself be hit. Kane joked after the game Bedard was lucky he was wearing his protective head gear or he would have retaliated.
- The Blackhawks organization really knows how to do a ceremony, right? Here are some highlights from Chelios jersey retirement:
- Brent Seabrook — and many other high profile Blackhawks players from the recent Cup wins — was in attendance tonight. There were a lot of people who thought this jersey number retirement should have waited until next season when Seabrook was officially retired too. Chelios was all for sharing when the time came.
- And here are some of the Kane related highlights on his return to the United Center:
Game Charts


Three Stars
- Patrick Kane (DET) — 1 goal, 1 assist
- Alex DeBrincat (DET) — 1 goal, 1 assist
- Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks have three days off before hosting the Colorado Avalanche at the United Center Thursday night at 8 p.m.