The Chicago Blackhawks snapped their three-game win streak after their third-period comeback fell just a little short, falling 6-4 to the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
The Flames broke the ice just over 12 minutes into the game while on the penalty kill. After Blake Coleman got the puck to Jonathan Huberdeau, the latter split two Blackhawks and scored a short handed goal off the rush to put the Flames up 1-0.
Nazem Kadri doubled the Flames lead a couple of minutes later. Kadri picked off an exit pass from Kevin Korchinski, skated it back in, and then used Korchinski as a screen to beat Petr Mrazek top shelf.
The Blackhawks cut the deficit midway through the second period. Taylor Hall fed Connor Bedard while on a 2-on-1 and he beat Dustin Wolf with a wicked wrister to make it 2-1.
The Flames’ own Connor scored less than 30 seconds later to restore Calgary’s two-goal lead:
Matt Coronato put the Flames up 4-1 while on the power play. After a little cycling, Huberdeau found Coronato in the circle with a touch pass from down low and the latter beat Petr Mrazek short side, top corner.
The Flames scored their third goal of the second period with 2:09 left in the frame. This time, it was Blake Coleman: a shot from Jake Bean was deflected by Taylor Hall, but Coleman did a little jump move to tip the puck in and put the Flames up 5-1.
The third period is where things got interesting, as the Blackhawks went on to score three goals and get within one in the final minute of the game.
First, just 57 seconds into the third, Connor Bedard sent a slick pass to Tyler Bertuzzi in the crease, and Bertuzzi tapped the puck in past Wolf to make it 5-2.
Bertuzzi scored again at 11:30 of the period, this time on the power play. It was another beautiful dish from Bedard to Bertuzzi on the back door, with the latter slapping it in to make it 5-3.
The Blackhawks got within one with 68 seconds left in the game thanks to a goal-mouth goal by Ilya Mikeyev with the goalie pulled. Bedard did a nice job circling the zone up high before getting the puck to Teuvo Teravainen, whose shot hit the boards and bounced in front of the net. In the ensuing scramble at the net, Nick Foligno passed to Mikeyev who knocked the puck in to make it 5-4.
Unfortunately, the comeback was cut short after Mikael Backlund scored an empty-netter with 23 seconds left to put this one away 6-4 Flames.
Notes
The opening minutes of the game were filled with a few very good chances from the Blackhawks — especially one by Bedard just 29 seconds in — but, unfortunately, the rest of the period was primarily controlled by the Flames at 5-on-5. The Blackhawks finished with only 40 percent of the shot attempts, 33.33 percent of the shots on goal, and 39.33 percent of the expected goals. Mrazek had to be big at times just to keep the game from going off the rails. But while the Blackhawks chances were fewer, there were some major moments where Wolf had to be excellent in net to keep the Blackhawks off the board. So yeah, it was an interesting period because it felt at times like the Flames could have been up 6-5 if not for both goalies.
The second period felt much more even to start, but once the Flames scored so quickly after Bedard, it felt like momentum shifted for a while to favor the Flames. And it was definitely annoying to see the Blackhawks give up a quick goal after scoring their first — I think we were all hoping that the team had move past that bad habit. Still, the Blackhawks were as bad as the three goals against suggested, and they especially pushed hard near the end. They ended up with the edge in terms of shot attempts (53.57 percent), shots on goal (58.82), and expected goals (58.38) at 5-on-5but with only one goal to show for it.
Good news is the Blackhawks carried that momentum into the third and were rewarded right away. Earlier in the season, the Blackhawks being down 5-1 going into the third meant that was it, that the game almost wasn’t worth watching anymore. However, the team really seems to be in a “don’t count us out” mentality lately, and even though the comeback didn’t succeed, it was fun to watch. The Blackhawks finished the period with 62.5 percent of the shot attempts, 60 percent of the shots on goal, and 88.62 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. One caveat, though, is that there was a lot of special teams during this period so 5-on-5 play was fairly low-event.
Speaking of special teams, they were a little rough for the first half of the game. I know Seth Jones manned the top power-play unit before he was injured, but it’s been running so smoothly, it might have been better to not mess with a good thing by putting him out there. Vlasic was back out there some, at least definitely on the 5-on-3. The penalty kill didn’t look quite as sharp during the first two penalties, but they managed to survive, yet the third bit them and their penalty kill streak ended at 33. Not bad — they’ll just have to start a new streak!
As for Jones, his overall game overall was honestly fine. He did look a little rusty, but that’s to be expected. There were some Blackhawks fans ragging on him, but there weren’t any other particularly large mistakes from him outside that one power play. There was no reason for him to play 18:10 at 5-on-5 and over 26 minutes overall, though. Like, try easing the guy back in and let Alex Vlasic keep eating the most minutes because he’s been great in that role.
Mrazek was also a little rusty this game, though it didn’t look like it would be that way to start. It was ultimately just an up-and-down game for him: he made some big, amazing stops, especially early, but a couple of the goals against were a little questionable. However, like with Jones, it’s not unexpected for Mrazek to need a little time before he’s back to tip-top game shape, and his bright spots were obviously very bright.
There’s been much ado about how well the Teuvo Teravainen and Ilya Mikheyev duo has really shined in Sorensen’s system among the forwards but, despite not getting the same results, Bertuzzi is one of the forwards benefitting the most. Under Richardson, Bertuzzi had a 3.85 shot per 60 rate (11th among forwards) and 0.57 expected goals per 60 rate (9th) at 5-on-5, both things that were fairly different from previous years. He wasn’t able to get into the zone and set up in close, which was hurting his high-danger chance rate. Under Sorensen, Bertuzzi has 7.54 shots per 60 (tied for third) and 1.07 expected goals per 60 (second). Yes the sample is much smaller, but it’s a positive trend that looks sustainable. Bertuzzi isn’t the swiftest, but Sorensen’s quick-paced, hard forechecking system allows for others to get in the zone and give Bertuzzi time to set up either in front of the net or work along the boards. It’s not the only reason he’s improved, but it definitely helps.
Hall is the other player who has had the biggest turnaround in terms of their underlying metrics, but he’s less the story tonight so I’ll go into that more in-depth later.
Honestly, basically every player has looked better under Sorensen. Again, the sample is small, but it’s encouraging because the current system is much more modern, focused on things like speed and tenacity that have been a hailmark for GM Kyle Davidson’s drafting. Even if Sorensen isn’t the coach of the future, it highlights how a coach with that type of system and fast-paced mentality needs to be in the charge of this team.
Sorensen also made one key change this game, flipping Bedard and Frank Nazar. Bedard not getting results at 5-on-5 has been a story for a little bit now, but this simple change seemed to open him up a bit. He still only had two shot attempts but both were on-net scoring chances and one of those was a goal. Additionally, he had quite a lot of passes that weren’t received well, but still resulted in scoring chances. Bedard finished with three points on the night with two at 5-on-5. I think we’ll all take that. It’ll be interesting to see if Hall, Bedard, and Bertuzzi can repeat: they haven’t played much together before, just a bit over 40 minutes before and not many games consecutively, but their shot stats were good: 59.09 percent of the shot attempts and 53.96 percent of the expected goals.
With his goal tonight, Bedard passed Patrick Kane for second-most goals by a teenager in Blackhawks franchise, though to be fair, Kane did so in fewer games (because he came into almost a year older). Bedard is also just five points off from surpassing Kane for most points by a teenager. The point is, even with the slump earlier this season and a much worse team (and no Jonathan Toews quality players on his line), Bedard is keeping pace with the most recent great offensive Blackhawks player. It’ll be good to see him get consistently going at 5-on-5 obviously — this game could be the first step — but he’s doing well otherwise. And losses are more acceptable when Bedard is racking up points, let’s be honest.
Bedard was also pretty targeted this game, but the fact that he didn’t really let it impact his play is a testament to his mental toughness. Some guys would be frustrated and, instead, he went out and continued to produce scoring chances.
Just to note, Foligno did try to fight Martin Pospisil for the elbow against Bedard and a few other hard hits, but the latter declined so he just played the dude hard the rest of the game. The elbow was somewhat dirty, but I respect Foligno not forcing the issue and instead focusing on the game while getting in shots when needed.
Ryan Donato also came to the defense of Nazar after Pospisil laid him out. This wasn’t dirty but an appropriate response to a guy who been hitting hard all game.
Bertuzzi, who often plays that style of hockey himself, aptly stated that Pospisil was just playing hard hockey and the Hawks reacted to him as they should:
There also is probably a fine coming for Bertuzzi for his slash to Huberdeau here:
Lastly, I wanted to touch briefly on four other young players: Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan, Nazar, and Lukas Reichel. Korchinski did have that initial bad turnover in the first that ended up being a goal against, and while this wasn’t his best game since being up, he was overall fine. Allan was more than fine, he had another really strong game. He’s just so effective defensively, nothing highlight-reel worthy but he plays smart, simple, and usually error-free. He ended up with the third most minutes among defenders with 18:58 and second at 5-on-5 with 15:57. I don’t think this was a particularly interesting game from Nazar or Reichel, but I also think both are somewhat hamstrung by who they’re playing with / the position they’re playing. Reichel did have this great pass to Joey Anderson in the third, but the latter couldn’t finish it:
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 goal, 2 assists
- Connor Zary (CGY) — 1 goal, 1 assist
- Jonathan Huberdeau (CGY) — 1 goal, 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks head to Minnesota to face the Wild on Monday at 7 p.m.