The Blackhawks looked to extend their five game winning streak Monday night, against the Vancouver Canucks on Jim Thome night. This game began a stretch of seven games in 13 nights.
The Blackhawks had Corey Crawford in net, following a brilliant 48 save performance in Montreal. Thatcher Demko was in goal for Vancouver, making his sixth career start. John Hayden, Carl Dahlstrom and the injured Drake Caggiula were scratches for the Blackhawks
This was your Blackhawks starting lineup:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Dylan Sikura
Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Brendan Perlini
Dominik Kahun – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Chris Kunitz – David Kampf– Marcus Kruger
Duncan Keith – Erik Gustafsson
Gustav Forsling – Brent Seabrook
Slater Koekkoek – Connor Murphy
Period One
Once the puck finally dropped, the action raced up and down the ice with little defense played, but the goalies were both off to strong starts.
The Blackhawks drew a penalty five minutes into the game, but they were not able to capitalize. This was the 17th straight powerplay without scoring, which makes the five game winning streak that much more remarkable.
The play teetered back and forth until the final minute of the first period, when Brandon Saad drew a penalty while on a partial break-a-way. Jonathan Toews redirected a Patrick Kane shot-pass from high in the slot that eluded Thatcher Demko and dribbled into the net for a 1-0 Blackhawks lead. The assist was Kane’s 100th point of this career season.
Sneaky!#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/B9vhTev5Y3
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 19, 2019
The Canucks out shot the Blackhawks by one, 11-10, in the opening period
Period Two
Just a minute into the second period, and just four seconds into a power play, the Canucks converted to tie the game following a lost faceoff deep in the Blackhawks zone. Alexander Edler walked the blue line and beat the Blackhawks goalie cleanly.
Certainly a long goal that Corey Crawford would have liked back.
At the 13:38 mark, the Canucks and Marcus Granlund took a 2-1 lead when Brock Boeser cut through the slot and took a shot through traffic on Corey Crawford. Crawford kicked the rebound right to the waiting Granlund, and the Canucks had their first lead of the night.
As a result, the Blackhawks managed only four shots for the entire period, while the Canucks had eight.
Period Three
The Blackhawks started the third period much more even than the second, but five minutes into the third the Canucks just missed a prime scoring chance when Blackhawks defenseman Gustav Forsling tied up Loui Eriksson enough to force him to just nudge the puck to a prone Corey Crawford, rather than put it into a wide open net.
Five minutes later, Crawford stoned Eriksson once again, after a puck squirted to Crawford’s left and the Canucks wing found himself all alone. Crawford was able to get his left leg and glove in the way and snuff out the chance.
Crawford keeping the #Blackhawks in this one midway through the 3rd period!
Don’t miss the rest: https://t.co/LYv3wLYmPC pic.twitter.com/ceYoy2Srpj
— BlackhaWWWWWks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) March 19, 2019
With five minutes left in regulation, the Blackhawks got a prime opportunity on the power play to ties the game when Slater Koakkoek drew a bad Canucks penalty. Unfortunately, the home team could not muster up much pressure and the Canucks emerged unscathed.
With just over three minutes remaining, the Blackhawks used a faceoff play to tie the game. Jonathan Toews won the faceoff, Patrick Kane passed back to Duncan Keith, who fed Erik Gustafsson for a one timer. Demko was distracted by his own defender and just whiffed on the shot. All the same, the puck dropped and rolled into the net.
WE. ARE. EVEN!
Gus ties it up late in the 3rd!
Don’t miss the end of this one: https://t.co/LYv3wLYmPC pic.twitter.com/wRWg1AL8pP
— BlackhaWWWWWks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) March 19, 2019
That would end up all the scoring in regulation for the two team, and the game rumbled to overtime with the Blackhawks out shooting the Canuck 17-11 in the third period.
Overtime
Just sixteen seconds into the extra time, Bo Horvat and company easily waltzed through the Blackhawks defense and beat Corey Crawford five-hole for the game winner, but the Blackhawks got their loser point.
.@BoHorvat wins it in OT! pic.twitter.com/6tpXr69dbC
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) March 19, 2019
Pluses
- Corey Crawford was great in net, again. This is just another example of the Blackhawks needing inhuman efforts to keep in contention for wild card. They are going to fall short, because 8-2 in their final 10 games will prove to be unachievable.
- Patrick Kane got his 100th and 101st points of the season. If he was just having an average Kane year, the team would have never even been able to mention wild card spots.
- I will admit that these Blackhawks games have been fun to watch but more in a “car wreck you can’t look away from” realm. It’s chaos and uncertainty but I can understand why one would buy tickets to see them. We could see 2-1 game or a 8-7 game, and both would be completely plausible.
Minuses
- The Blackhawks effort for most of the first two periods was lackluster. Playing half games (and sometimes only one period) competitively just shows that they are a team that is running out of gas. The numbers support that they are thriving on luck and unreasonably good individual efforts. They are the 1990 Houston Oilers trying to sustain with the run-n-shoot offense gimmick. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
- The Blackhawks were 46% at the faceoff dots and lost two faceoffs that led directly to goals. The Alex Edler goal and the overtime loser were both as a result of not getting possession directly from a faceoff. Totally over-rated, though.
- Dylan Sikura had four shots on net…but only one of them came after the first period. #CrunchTime