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With a Rebel Yell, She Cried, ‘Moore, Moore, Moore’: Blackhawks 4, Hurricanes 3

Not quite the full Gordie Howe hat trick but close enough!

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images

Regulation and overtime weren’t enough to decide a winner, but the Blackhawks used the shootout to pick up both points in a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night in Raleigh.

Just after the midpoint of the first period, Chicago went ahead 1-0 when a solo effort from Ilya Mikheyev resulted in a shorthanded goal:

A little over a minute later, Joel Nystrom tied the game with the first NHL goal of his career:

Nick Lardis put the Hawks back in front at the 4:35 mark of the second:

Jordan Staal tied the game at two with this conversion of a 2-on-1:

Chicago went back in front yet again when — Connor Murphy? Yeah! Connor Murphy! — walked to the net and dangled around Frederik Andersen for this goal:

That 3-2 Chicago advantage lasted for just 42 seconds. Jackson Blake made it 3-3:

After a scoreless overtime and a lengthy shootout, Oliver Moore gave the Hawks the win with this winner in round No. 6:

Notes

Let’s start with the Oliver Moore section of the recap. First off, watching the 5-foot-11, 188-pound Moore start a fight with 6-foot-3, 218-pound Alexander Nikishin reminded me of this bar fight scene in The Replacements … “You’ve got balls, Falco. You’ve got shit for brains, but you’ve got balls.”

Yeah, yeah, he’s sticking up for teammates and all that. Let’s just not make this a habit, OK?

The shootout goal was obviously excellent, but Moore also put his other skills on display before that Lardis goal, using his speed to carry the puck into the zone before making the pass to Donato which kicked off the quick sequence that ended with Lardis putting the puck in the net. An excellent evening for the now 21-year-old, who should use the newfound wisdom of his age when choosing future fight opponents.

Oliver Moore on fighting (and getting fed three straight right hands by) Alexander Nikishin: "He's a big boy. And Russian. I actually talked to him a little bit, he said it was his first fight, too. Can't buy that."

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 9:10 PM

Speaking of that Lardis goal, a small window into the instincts of a goal scorer were evident on that play, as Lardis recognized how the play was moving and stopped skating just long enough to open up space in a high-danger area where Donato found him for that goal. Lardis also made a nice defensive play during the next shift, too:

On the other end of the hockey instincts spectrum: Artyom Levshunov! Another tough night for the kid, who made an ill-fated decision to pinch on Staal’s goal, considering his D partner had already jumped up into the play, which is why Bedard was the only player back for that 2-on-1. Also, early in the third, this bad mishandle led to a golden opportunity for Seth Jarvis, with the moment likely forgotten due to the two quality Chicago chances sandwiched around it:

Levshunov’s been fighting it for a week or two now when it wasn’t all that long ago that we were posting nightly clips of him doing things that only he seemed capable of doing without turning the puck over. In the third period, Levshunov only took four shifts and was skating with Matt Grzelcyk instead of Wyatt Kaiser. We’ll see if there’s any carryover of that subtle shift in the next game, because Levshunov still skated with Kaiser for six shifts in the third period of Monday’s game against Winnipeg while Chicago was nursing a 1-0 lead.

Crevier played a career-high 22:21 while Levhunov was at 16:37. Blashill: "I didn’t think Arty had his best night, especially early. Ice time has to be earned. And there’s been nights where Arty’s played really good and he’s played a lot, and tonight wasn’t his night. And I thought Louis was going"

— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 9:21 PM

No points for Nazar in his return but he was noticeable on the offensive side of the ice, whether it was setting up a teammate in a scoring chance like in the first clip below or skating to open ice for a chance of own such as in the second clip below. A solid return for No. 91 and hopefully that means goals and assists will be returning soon as well.

Not going to declare that the Blackhawks must re-sign Ilya Mikheyev after this season but he’d certainly be a useful piece again for this team next season and it still doesn’t feel like there’s an overwhelming number of forwards on their way to this in the near future that his spot necessarily needs to be opened up for someone else. I can think of a few other guys who’d I’d rather see moved out before we decide to move on from one of the bigger reasons why Chicago’s PK has been so good this season.

As expected, Carolina owned the possession in this game overall, with advantages in just about every 5-on-5 category: 49-31 in shot attempts, 29-12 in scoring chances and 13-6 in high-danger chances, which all add up to a 61.87 percent expected goal share. Worth crediting the Hawks for playing Carolina mostly even in terms of quantity in the third, though (shot attempts even at 13, scoring chances even at seven, high-danger chances even at five). And the Hawks even had the edge in quality during the final 20 minutes with an expected goal share of 60.98 percent. That’s not nothing.

Sharing this clip below just because it was interesting to hear Knight’s vocals so clearly on the broadcast:

And let’s watch Bedard’s shootout goal because we can:

Neat.

Anyway, taking two points off of a very good Carolina team is always going to be a good thing. The competition is just as good back at the UC on Friday night, so it’ll take another big effort just to earn one point, let alone two.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Ilya Mikheyev (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Oliver Moore (CHI) — 1 assists, shootout winner
  3. Joel Nystrom (CAR) — First NHL goal

What’s Next

The Hawks get no rest, heading back to Chicago for a Friday night game at the United Center against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 6 p.m. puck drop.

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