The Chicago Blackhawks were back in the Windy City on Monday night to take on the Los Angeles Kings. They were fresh off a victory in California on Saturday night that saw them take down the Anaheim Ducks 6–3, and looking like a cohesive team for the first time in quite a while. Spencer Knight got the start in net for the Blackhawks against Darcy Kuemper for Los Angeles. The only other lineup change for the Blackhawks was Louis Crevier checking into the lineup for TJ Brodie.
First period
Despite being outshot by the Kings by a huge margin, the Blackhawks managed to escape the first tied up. Alec Martinez opened the scoring with a shot from the point through some traffic in front, putting the Blackhawks up halfway through the period. Some sloppy play from the team led to a Los Angeles chance shortly thereafter. Anze Kopitar put a snap shot on net that beat Knight, knotting things up at 1–1. The period would end that way despite the 17–7 shot advantage for the Kings. Knight was solid in the frame, making multiple big saves to keep his new team in it.
Second period
The Blackhawks settled things down in the second. In the first minute of play in the period, they had the puck down in the offensive zone. It was fed out in front for a beautiful chance for Teuvo Teravainen. He fed the puck over to Ilya Mikheyev, who buried his shot to put the Blackhawks up 2–1 early in the second.
Ilya Mikheyev gets his 12th goal of the season to open the 2nd period pic.twitter.com/5pIfjgqFlM
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) March 4, 2025
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At the 13:30 mark of the period, Ethan Del Mastro put a shot toward the front from a bad angle. It deflected off of a Jacob Moverare’s skate and into the net, 3–1 Chicago.
Third period
The third period was once again marked by a huge shot discrepancy. The Blackhawks were massively outshot again, but managed to score the only goals of the period. At the 1:20 mark, Colton Dach found Andreas Athanasiou out in front, who buried his first of the season, making it 4–1 Blackhawks.
Dach ➡️ Athanasiou ➡️ 🚨 pic.twitter.com/hPpehlRJl2
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The Blackhawks would add one more on a Ryan Donato empty-netter, and put away the Kings by a 5–1 final score.
Analysis
This team has just been finding ways to get it done. Knight absolutely stood on his head in his first game as a Blackhawk, keeping them in this game throughout, even through a rocky first period. Making the most of shot attempts is something that is good to see as well, as the Dach to Athanasiou goal was one of three shots in the third, and putting that and an empty-netter in definitely put it out of reach of the Kings coming back. It is also nice to get contributions from guys like Martinez and Del Mastro, who are not known for their offense normally, but contributed big goals in this game.
The next Blackhawks game is on Wednesday versus the Ottawa Senators at the United Center. That game will be on CHSN at 6:30 p.m. CST.