The Chicago Blackhawks came into Tuesday night’s action against the Vegas Golden Knights looking to continue to rack up points, having won their previous two games by beating the surging Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the process. Maybe the Hawks just need to play bad teams so they have something to play down to instead of playing up to the level of competition that these clubs have provided. Petr Mrazek was back in net after Jaxson Stauber took care of the Maple Leafs in the last game.
– The first period started off slowly, but the Hawks looked strong in the first few minutes of play, not allowing many chances for Vegas. Then, Keegan Kolesar took a beautiful feed from Nicolas Roy and put it past a diving Mrazek to make the score 1–0 Golden Knights.
– The Blackhawks came back in the frame, though, at the 12:39 mark. Taylor Raddysh blocked a shot, Tyler Johnson made a beautiful pass of the boards and Cole Guttman got a breakaway, beating Laurent Brossoit five hole to tie things up at 1–1. Guttman has looked good so far in his young career. The first period would end in a 1–1 tie game.
– After trading power plays and chances through the first 10+ minutes of the second period, Seth Jones stole a pass that looked like it would lead the Blackhawks to an offensive zone opportunity. Instead, it got turned right back over, with Johnson missing his assignment, and Jack Eichel skating into the right circle, looking pass, but wristing it past Mrazek to give the Golden Knights the 2–1 lead. For once, Jones got left out to dry and could not do anything besides trying to break up the pass, letting Eichel have the clear shot.
– Both teams traded chances throughout the third, with the Blackhawks getting a final power play opportunity to tie it on an Alex Pietrangelo delay-of-game penalty. After a couple of chances throughout the first minute of power play time, Max Domi won the face-off, with Patrick Kane getting the puck across to Johnson, who one-timed it past Brossoit to tie everything up at 2–2 and force overtime.
– In overtime, a missed Pietrangelo pass with 10 seconds left led to a Kane breakaway, and he blasted it past Brossoit to give the Blackhawks the victory. Well, at least it should have, but the goal was waved off as time had expired before the puck had fully crossed the line, meaning the game was headed to the shootout.
– Scoreless through two rounds in the shootout, Jonathan Marchessault missed on his opportunity, giving Johnson the chance to finish it off. He did just that, giving the Blackhawks the shootout victory, and their third win in a row.
The Blackhawks will be in action again on Wednesday night in Texas to face the Dallas Stars. Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. CST on NBC Sports Chicago.