The San Jose Sharks were in Chicago to face the Blackhawks, Monday evening. This could not have been a better example of two teams trending in opposite directions. While the Hawks were coming in off a win in New York, they were riding a 3-6-1 record in their last 10. San Jose, on the other hand, was coming in as one of the hottest in the NHL, going 8-2 in their last 10.
With a very strong outing against the Islanders over the weekend, goalie Anton Forsberg made his second straight start in net for the Blackhawks.
In a carousel of the walking wounded, John Hayden took the night off with an “injury” so that Victor Ejdsell could be recalled.
Speaking of Ejdsell, This game was going to be a memorable one for the big Swedish rookie. He made his Blackhawks, NHL and home debut.
Brandon Saad – Victor Ejdsell – Patrick Kane
Vinnie Hinostroza – Nick Schmaltz – Matthew Highmore
Patrick Sharp – David Kampf – Alex DeBrincat
Tomas Jurco – Artem Anisimov – Andreas Martinsen
Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook
Erik Gustafsson – Connor Murphy
Jordan Oesterle – Jan Rutta
The Blackhawks came out in the first period and surrendered a plethora of shots on net thanks to a little assistance from an early Sharks powerplay.
However, the Sharks opened the scoring half way through the first period.
The aforementioned Victor Ejdsell had a front row seat for the goal, because his guy was the player that gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Jannik Hansen dumped off a subtle little pass to Marcus Sorensen just before Hansen made a move to go behind the net, which left Sorensen enough room to beat the startled Blackhawks goaltender.
Five minutes after the Sharks took the lead, an eventful Alex DeBrincat shift resulted in the game tying goal for the Blackhawks. DeBrincat had started the play by initially turning the puck over in the San Jose zone, but hustled back to cause a turnover and then sent Brandon Saad back the other way. Saad dropped the puck to Vinnie Hinostroza, who send a snapshot towards Sharks goalie Martin Jones. Jones made the first save, but the rebound fell to his left and the trailing Alex DeBrincat swatted it into the net for his 26th goal of the year.
The Hawks were not done there, though.
Just a minute and eighteen seconds after DeBrincat tied the game Connor Murphy put them up 2-1. Murphy just let a long point shot go from the right half-boards. The puck took a funny bounce off what looked to be Brenden Dillon and went high over Jones’ glove.
This would be how the first period ended, as the Blackhawks fought back to take a 11-10 first period shot lead.
As the second period began, the home team was a little slow coming out of the gates once again, surrendering an early 4-1 shot advantage. Luckily, they were able to battle back and break even.
It took until just past the 16 minute mark for either team to score. Evander Kane got in behind Brent Seabrook and was off to the races on Anton Forsberg. Forsberg made the initial save, but the puck squirted out behind him and into the net to tie the game.
Bad set of circumstances after making a good save for Forsberg.
The second intermission followed shortly after with the teams deadlocked at two goals a piece, and the Sharks leading in shots on net, 15-10.
The third period started out the complete opposite of the first and second periods. The Blackhawks actually came out with some purpose, jumping out to a 7-2 shot advantage.
With just over four minutes remaining in regulation play, Tomas Hertl stole a loose puck from Erik Gustafsson along the Blackhawks half boards, and raced in on Anton Forsberg all alone. Hertl beat Forsberg high to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead.
One might have thought the game was over, there, but Patrick Sharp was not subscribing to that narrative. Alex DeBrincat was also involved in the play, feeding Patrick Sharp for a one timer in a prime scoring position, and getting his second point of the night. Martin Jones got a piece of the shot but the puck squirted behind him and slowly into the net.
Then came the overtime; and what an overtime it was.
Nick Schmaltz had a great 2-on-1 chance that turned into a clean breakaway but Martin Jones made the save, while Anton Forsberg made a couple of nice saves at his end. Both goalies were exceptional in the extra time.
With no winner after the extra five minutes, it was on to the shootout.
Logan Couture and Patrick Sharp both scored early on to let the game be decided in sudden death. Peter Lebanc (WHO?) was, apparently, just the guy to end said sudden death. He beat Forsberg with a Kane-esque slow down move which earned the Sharks the extra point in the standings.
Pluses
- Anton Forsberg has looked pretty good for two straight games. This is certainly good news, but he is going to need a thorough brainwashing this summer to exorcise the demons that Joel Quenneville has infected his brain with.
- Victor Ejdsell was not dominant or anything, but he held his own. I cannot gripe with his performance, especially after playing only his 3rd game on North American ice. The -3 on the score sheet will look bad, but he was only really involved in the first Sharks goal. I am going to stand by my initial statement that Ejdsell will be the younger, cheaper replacement for Artem Anisimov next season.
- Alex DeBrincat had another good game. Two points, a plus three, and he was a threat to score a couple more times. If the Blackhawks can find him an Artemi Panarin/Patrick Kane type partnership, he may score 40 goal in the next couple of years.
Minuses
- It is always strange to see the Blackhawks beat another team in hits, but this was one of those rare games. Even if it was by the slimmest of margins, 26-25.
- Getting out shot 38-31 at home is something that needs to be fixed. I’m still not convinced that the members of this defensive corp can improve enough in the off-season to fix this problem.