The Chicago Blackhawks had one more game before the holiday break. This one was another road contest against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.
The Hawks ended their three-game winning streak against the Calgary Flames on Saturday so they came into this one hoping to get back in the win column.
Things started well for Chicago as they once again scored the first goal of the game. Connor Bedard’s 9th of the season got Chicago out to a 1-0 lead.
Bedard looked like he was going to send the pass across to Tyler Bertuzzi but he beat Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson with a sneaky move. Taylor Hall made a great defensive play that led to the puck finding Bedard’s stick in the first place.
Chicago’s best player scored so Minnesota’s best player responded. Kirill Kaprizov was in the right place at the right time at 11:11 to get the game all tied up. That was it for scoring in the first period.
Nick Foligno then gave the Blackhawks the lead back at 6:16 of the middle frame. On this goal, Frank Nazar collected the first assist of his NHL career. He scored his first goal in his first game last season but now he has that first assist.
It was a great effort by everybody involved to get the lead back for Chicago. The unfortunate part is that their ugly issue of hanging onto early or mid-game leads reared its ugly head.
Chicago’s captain scored so Minnesota’s captain responded. Jared Spurgeon tied things up for the Wild at 7:05 and they took that score into the third.
Brock Faber gave the Wild their first lead of the game at 2:43 of the final frame. Minnesota thought they sealed it by throwing one into the empty net to make it 4-2.
Like we’ve seen a lot from the Hawks so far this season, they didn’t give up despite going down two from the ENG. Jason Dickinson scored to get Chicago back within one at 19:27.
It did end up being too little too late as the 4-3 score stood as the final but they had a chance to win. Playing hard until the final whistle is good for a young team like this. It did turn out that the empty net goal sealed the victory for Minnesota but the Hawks didn’t just assume it was over when it happened.
Now, the Blackhawks are done with the pre-holiday portion of their schedule. They are 12-21-2 for 26 standings points which is the worst record in the NHL.
With that said, they have been much better lately and the up-tempo system implemented by interim head coach Anders Sorensen seems to be helping.
When they return from break, they need to work on pushing the pace even harder when they are leading or tied early in the game. You can’t sit back in this league, you must be aggressive at all times.
The Blackhawks will get back to action on Friday night when they visit the Buffalo Sabres for a matchup against a struggling Eastern Conference team.
It will be a great opportunity for some of the skilled guys on the Hawks to get their touches at even strength and on the power play coming out of the break.
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