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On My Own: Blackhawks 4, Mammoth 0

Hawks win? Hawks win!

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images

The Blackhawks built a lead and kept it from slipping away on Sunday afternoon, winning 4-0 over the Utah Mammoth.

In the final minute of the first period, A forecheck from Tyler Bertuzzi led to a power-play goal from Teuvo that sent Chicago to the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

Chicago’s fourth line added a pair of goals 89 seconds apart in the middle of the second period. First, Nick Foligno picked up a loose puck and then dangled around Karel Vejmelka to tuck this one home for a 2-0 Hawks lead:

Then Vejmelka mishandled this wrist shot from Landon Slaggert, giving Chicago a 3-0 lead:

Early in the third period, Teuvo added his second goal — this one of the shorthanded variety — to put the Hawks up 4-0 and help calm any notions of a Utah comeback:

Notes

In the same way that defense requires all five players to be responsible in their own end of the ice, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Blackhawks offense came to life during a game in which several of the team’s blue-liners were noticeably involved in plays towards the net. Louis Crevier had a few moments when he jumped up into the play aggressively but Alex Vlasic was probably the most consistent dual threat from the Hawks in this game, including his starring role in Teuvo’s shorthanded goal that effectively iced the game.

Not the busiest night of Arvid Soderblom’s career when he needed to be but he made the necessary saves when called upon, leading to a shutout.

Soderblom wasn’t too busy in this game — he needed just 22 saves to earn the first shutout of his NHL career — because the Blackhawks team defense was pretty good throughout the game. It felt like any quality chances that Utah generated, rare as they were, ended just as fast as they started. Combine that lack of sustained pressure with more responsible puck management in their own end and it all adds up to that Mammoth goose egg on the scoreboard.

After the game, Blashill was particularly complimentary of the how the Hawks transitioned from defense to offense, citing that as a key reason for their success in this game:

We could pick some nits about the lack of scoring from younger players and another goose egg for Frank Nazar. But the way things have gone with this team of late, that’d be unnecessarily negative. This team has desperately needed someone other than Bedard to score and that finally happened in this game. Perhaps it starts with the veteran forwards and then trickles down to the younger players in upcoming weeks, now that this team has a win under its belt — just their second in the last 10 games. Plus, it came during the team’s second consecutive gameday and against a team that was playing as good as any in the league. We’ll take these two points, thank you very much.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Arvid Soderblom (CHI) — 22-save shutout
  2. Teuvo Teravainen (CHI) — 2 goals
  3. Alex Vlasic (CHI) — 1 assist, team-high 24:24 TOI

What’s Next

The Blackhawks finish off this road trip north of the border, facing the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

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