The Chicago Blackhawks failed to hold on to a two-goal lead on Monday night at the United Center, ultimately falling 4-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime.
The Blackhawks opened the scoring, as they have done in more than half their games, midway through the first with a goal from a returning Philipp Kurashev. Ryan Donato made a slick pass off the rush to Kurashev, who wired the puck it, putting the Blackhawks up 1-0.
Chicago goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Philipp Kurashev with 10:14 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Ryan Donato and Louis Crevier.
Chicago: 1
Carolina: 0#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/SVYRWYapw3
Tyler Bertuzzi doubled the Blackhawks’ lead with 3:05 remaining in the first. A Seth Jones shot bounded off the boards, and Bertuzzi banked the loose puck off Frederik Anderson and in from below the goal line, making it 2-0.
Chicago goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Tyler Bertuzzi with 03:05 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Seth Jones.
Chicago: 2
Carolina: 0#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/gbFUvjMdiX
The Hurricanes got on the board just 1:25 into the second period when Seth Jarvis scored a shorthanded goal. Connor Bedard turned the puck over at the blue line on the power play, Jarvis then got around Seth Jones and in alone on Mrazek before scoring a backhander.
Short-handed goal for Carolina!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Seth Jarvis with 18:35 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin.
Chicago: 2
Carolina: 1#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/NT2LFh72mf
Jesperi Kotkaniemi tied the game 2-2 at 7:26 of the middle frame, easily gaining inside position on TJ Brodie and tapping in a centering pass from Eric Robinson.
Carolina goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Jesperi Kotkaniemi with 12:34 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Eric Robinson and Jaccob Slavin.
Chicago: 2
Carolina: 2#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/hTRXgD23Iz
Donato gave the Blackhawks their lead back with 18 seconds left in the period, one-timing Taylor Hall’s pass from below the goal line past Andersen’s stick side to put the Blackhawks up 3-2.
Chicago goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Ryan Donato with 00:19 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Taylor Hall and Philipp Kurashev.
Chicago: 3
Carolina: 2#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/BKjyImJHfq
The Hurricanes tied the game again, this time at 3-3, after Jordan Staal poked a loose puck into the net during a goal-mouth scramble where Mrazek couldn’t cover it.
Carolina goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Jordan Staal with 06:23 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Jordan Martinook and Dmitry Orlov.
Chicago: 3
Carolina: 3#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/ISuGtYuyxt
A one-timer by Sebastian Aho set up with a beautiful pass by Marty Necas won it for the Hurricanes just 59 seconds into overtime, making the final score 4-3.
Carolina goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 21, 2025
Scored by Sebastian Aho with 04:01 remaining in the OT period.
Assisted by Martin Necas and Jaccob Slavin.
Chicago: 3
Carolina: 4#CARvsCHI #Blackhawks #RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/7n0MfbufFN
Notes
After the Blackhawks basically just survived the Hurricanes onslaught to open and end the first period, Chicago managed to have a few pockets of good play here or there throughout the period and capitalized twice during those periods. The Blackhawks even had a slightly better expected goal share (54.56 percent), but they couldn’t keep the Hurricanes from dictating puck possession — Carolina owned 70.27 percent of the shot attempts and 60 percent of the shots on goal at 5-on-5. It’s a strategy that won’t always work, but it’s how the Blackhawks have to play against these types of elite shot possession teams if they want a chance at winning.
The second period went like most seconds go for the Blackhawks: the were dominated. Not only from a possession standpoint, but also in terms of results. The Hurricanes probably deserved to score more than two goals that period, honestly. The good news is the Blackhawks managed to score a late goal to regain the lead, but the poor second periods have been an issue all season. It’s hard to tell if the Blackhawks just run out of steam after first periods or if they’re easily countered by their opponents by the time the second period rolls around. The Blackhawks finished the middle frame being on the wrong side of the numbers in shot attempts (21-14) and shots on goal (11-4) while owning only 34.74 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5.
The third period was, again, one in which the Blackhawks were just riding the waves of the Hurricanes consistent drives of play. The Blackhawks have been a faster team since the influx of youth, but the Hurricanes are just on another level, especially with how precise their attacks are and how quickly they can cycle in-zone. It was actually the period the Blackhawks had the puck the least — shot attempts were 34-23, shots were 19-7, and the Blackhawks expected goals share was 16.97 percent — so they were lucky to make it to overtime.
Carolina finished with 48 shots on goal and 91 shot attempts, the most and third most, respectively, the Blackhawks have allowed against this season.
“That would’ve been a nice win to get for him, especially playing his former team. We got just a bit overwhelmed by their shot quantity.”
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) January 21, 2025
—Taylor Hall on the Blackhawks facing Petr Mrazek’s former team pic.twitter.com/atxcEM5Ogv
Ultimately, this was one of the most lopsided games of the season for Chicago, but it shows that the team does know how to counter well enough to stay close in terms of the score. Clean up some of the defensive mistakes — which honestly, there were less of than expected — and who knows? Maybe they pull a rabbit out of their hat and pull out a win. Either way, there are positives here, even if the team as a whole is quite a ways from being a finished product. And the Blackhawks are on a three-game point streak, which isn’t nothing — it’s only the second time this season they’ve managed that.
Speaking of defensive issues, you almost have to be impressed with how consistently bad TJ Brodie has been this season, and tonight was no different. Oh, he’ll have a game or two in a row in which you think he’s “fine” for him, but then you’re just overwhelmed by how far off he’s dropped over the years.
TJ Brodie through 40 minutes at 5v5:
— Talkin’ Hawkey (@TalkinHawkey) January 21, 2025
20 shot attempts against (team high)
13 shots on goal against (team high)
11 scoring chances against (team high)
5 high-danger chances against (tied for team high)#Blackhawks @NatStatTrick
The line that had the most goals (2) was obviously the Kurashev, Donato, and Hall line, but they were more opportunistic than good. In about 10 minutes together, the trio was out-attempted 25-8, outshot 12-6, and they had just 21.34 percent of the expected goals. Still, two goals is two goals, and every other lines basically ate it in terms volume of shots against. With Pat Maroon out with a back injury, it’s a good time to see if this line could work, especially with Kurashev hopefully trying to prove something out there.
The only line that didn’t get overwhelmed was Bedard’s with Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar: they finished with only 46.67 percent of the shot attempts but 51.38 percent of the expected goals. Those numbers are interesting because, outside of Bertuzzi, who led the Blackhawks with eight shot attempts and five on goal, the other two didn’t shoot all that much. Bedard and Nazar combined for three shot attempts and two on goal. Outside of Bertuzzi, most of the shots when this trio was on the ice came from defensemen.
No other player besides Bertuzzi had more than one shot on goal at 5-on-5, though six players — Bedard, Mikheyev, Donato, Martinez, and Crevier — all got one more SOG during other situations in the game. It’s hard to be too upset about the lack of shooting when it’s against a team like Carolina, though.
Nazar might not have shot a whole lot tonight, he still had a noticeably positive game. Lots of speed, great passing in every zone, really strong on the penalty kill … It feels like he’s going to break through with a big game in the near future. Being on the wing has just opened him up so much.
Frank Nazar's top speed is blistering fast. Wow. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/hKdbra8eme
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 21, 2025
Frank Nazar was about to blow past everyone again for a 2-on-0 but he's blatantly hooked. No call. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/iywO7nunzj
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 21, 2025
Bedard had his own flashes in the game, but it was overall quieter than his last handful. Not unexpected as Carolina was often double-teaming him. It’ll be his turnover on the power play, though, that will likely be the most talked about play of his, even if Soresen is right that was more due to a good defensive play by Slavin rather than a botch job by Bedard.
“Yeah, I think that play was tough. I think the guy poked it off his stick. So it's probably more of a really good defensive play than anything.”
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) January 21, 2025
—Anders Sorensen on Connor Bedard’s turnover that led to Carolina’s shorthanded goal pic.twitter.com/hviW7Wovv2
Dickinson did leave the game for a short while to get checked after taking a hard shot to the arm, but he returned to the game later, and Sorensen said afterwards that he was fine.
Dickinson "should be fine," Sorensen says. Bullet dodged. https://t.co/ELtnPFJUcW
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 21, 2025
I’m not going to go into the weeds on any other players because, frankly, there weren’t too many more interesting moments. We could talk about Lukas Reichel and Colton Dach having some flashes, Alex Vlasic being good outside of a moment where cheating cost him, or Jones having another good if not mistake-free game. For the most part, though, everyone was solid enough considering they were going against a powerhouse team like the Hurricanes. It is what it is.
Game Charts


Three Stars
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — 44 saves, .917 save-percentage
- Jaccob Slavin (CAR) — 3 assists
- Sebatian Aho (CAR) — 1 goal, 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks have three days before taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning at home on Friday at 7 p.m.