The Chicago Blackhawks came into Saturday evening’s action looking to get off of their winning ways, after beating the Boston Bruins at home and the Nashville Predators in Tennessee. In both games, the Blackhawks looked like the vastly better team, even after trading away seemingly half of the roster at the trade deadline, and getting Alex Stalock to play some tremendous goal in front of this piecemeal team.
Stalock would stay in net against Arizona, looking to win three straight, and looking like the best free agent the Blackhawks signed this past offseason.
First period: This game got off to a really quick start, with the Blackhawks getting the puck quickly into the offensive zone and getting the puck from behind the net up to Jarred Tinordi, who one-timed the puck toward the net. It was tipped on the way in by Jujhar Khaira, putting the Blackhawks on the board first, 1–0. That would be the only scoring in the period, however, as both goalies proved up to the task in keeping the puck out of the net.
Second period: It took almost the entire period, but the Coyotes finally got a puck past Stalock. Clayton Keller skated in along the boards, putting the puck toward the net. Barrett Hayton was skating right through, and redirected the puck past the Blackhawks goaltender, tying the score at 1–1.
Third period: The Blackhawks went on the power play a little over three minutes into the third period, and were able to convert. After a failed attempt by Lukas Reichel, the puck came right out to Caleb Jones, who wristed it past Ivan Prosvetov, giving the Blackhawks the 2–1 lead. The Coyotes would knot things back up with six minutes gone in the third, with Keller outwaiting Stalock, and wristing it past him on the short side to tie everything up at two apiece. With a delayed penalty coming, and their goalie pulled because of it, the Coyotes’ Juuso Valimaki snuck down low and buried a Keller pass past Stalock, 3–2 Coyotes. The Blackhawks pulled their goalie to try to tie things up again, but Matias Maccelli would put the dagger in things with an empty-net goal, giving the Coyotes the 4–2 win.
With the loss, the Blackhawks stayed only five points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the worst record in the NHL, and two points in front of the San Jose Sharks for the second-worst record.
The Blackhawks are back in action on Monday at the Colorado Avalanche. Coverage will begin at 8 p.m. CDT on NBC Sports Chicago.