With the end of the season in sight, the Chicago Blackhawks did their jobs and lost. The loss to the Wild was aided by an old friend in Ryan Hartman.
After a scoreless first period, Ryan Reaves notched the first goal of the game. Reaves stole the puck from rookie defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, who fell down when pressured by Reaves, and the big man beat Alex Stalock for the goal. In the third period, Lukas Reichel rushed up the ice in a 2-on-1 situation, and instead of passing, he shot the puck past Filip Gustavsson for the Blackhawks’ lone goal of the game to tie things at 1–1. But Hartman put Minnesota ahead for good with his breakaway goal late in the third period. Hartman hip checked Connor Murphy off the puck at center ice to open up the breakaway goal. The Wild added an empty-netter to make the final score 3–1.
- The Blackhawks are currently in 30th in the tank-a-thon rankings, just one point ahead of Columbus and San Jose for the bottom spot.
- In a developmental season, Reichel has four goals and four assists at the NHL level in 16 games.
- Kaiser has now appeared in three game this season. He has zero points.
- The Blackhawks signed Paul Ludwinski to an entry-level contract on Saturday. Ludwinski was a second-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2022. The 18-year-old has appeared in 47 games for the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL and is expected to finish the year in the OHL.
The Blackhawks’ next game is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CDT against the Vancouver Canucks. While the game is the Blackhawks’ Pride Night game, the Hawks will not be wearing Pride jerseys during pre-game warmups. The decision was made by Blackhawks management to protect their Russian players’ families against retribution. While the NHL has since debunked this theory, the Blackhawks have not changed their stance on the jerseys.
The Blackhawks now join an ever-growing list of the NHL teams not wearing Pride jerseys on their organization’s Pride night.