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RECAP: Blackhawks fall 2–1 to Stars in shootout

  
Lehner Stars Hawks Photo
The Blackhawks lost to the Stars 2–1 in a shootout. However, Robin Lehner was sensational for the visitors. Photo: Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks limped into Dallas on Saturday night after back-to-back losses at home on Tuesday and Thursday. The Blackhawks looked to get back on track against their central division foe on a special night in Dallas. 

Corey Perry celebrated his 1,000th NHL game on Saturday in Dallas. The forward spent the majority of those 1,000 games in Anaheim with the Ducks but has rebounded this year with a change of scenery. 

The Blackhawks rolled out their lines and the lineup looked very similar to many of their last five games. The lines were as follows:

Saad – Toews – Nylander
DeBrincat – Strome – Kane
Kubalik – Kampf – Shaw
Smith – Dach – Carpenter

Keith – Gustafsson
de Haan – Seabrook
Maatta – Murphy

Lehner

 

First period

The early portion of the period was a lot of back and forth between the two teams, but not a lot of quality chances were generated. The best chance of the first ten minutes came from Corey Perry. On the night of his 1,000th game, he could have put the Stars ahead early. Instead, he just flat out missed on his attempt to bury a puck with Lehner out of position.

Although Perry could not bury his chance, the Stars still struck first. Around the 14-minute mark, the Stars won a key faceoff in the Blackhawks’ zone. John Klingberg, in his first game back from injury, wired a shot through traffic that was tipped in front by Roope Hintz and ultimately found its way behind Robin Lehner. 

Although the Stars dominated the period, the Blackhawks found a way to capitalize on an A+ opportunity. On a play that started with Connor Murphy getting the puck up the boards, Patrick Kane tipped the pass further to Alex DeBrincat. “The Cat” led the charge up ice with Olli Maatta and had a two-on-one. DeBrincat and Maatta played catch, but the final move came from Maatta, getting his shot to squeak past Anton Khudobin to tie the game. The goal was the first as Blackhawk for Maatta.

Patrick Kane picked up the secondary assist, extending his point streak to 12 games. Kane has been sensational all season thus far. 

Despite how bad they played, the Blackhawks went into the first intermission tied at one. An excellent position to be in given how much the Stars dominated the first period. 

 

Second period

The period began with the Stars having a quality chance against Robin Lehner in the first minute. The Stars had a bit of a two-on-one. Jamie Benn, who coming into this game was riding a four-game point streak, failed to convert on the chance after the puck went off the toe of his stick.

The Blackhawks first excellent chance came via a power play in which DeBrincat was tripped by Blake Comeau to initiate the man advantage. The Blackhawks didn’t score on the power play, however, they dominated possession on the power play. They won every draw in the offensive zone, and only had to regroup once or twice before moving the puck around and getting shots on net. 

It’s safe to say if every Blackhawks power play looked that good all the time, they’d be much better statistically. 

On the other end of special teams, the Blackhawks killed off the first power play for the Stars in beautiful fashion. The Hawks killers swarmed the Stars and constantly applied pressure, leaving the Stars searching for answers as they were unable to generate any meaningful chances on their first man advantage of the evening. 

After the Hawks kill, the remaining five minutes of the period featured another Dallas Stars power play. However, seven seconds into the man advantage, Joe Pavelski was sent off for hitting David Kampf in the face. The roughing penalty resulted in four-on-four hockey for the remainder of the period. 

With ten seconds remaining, Jonathan Toews drew a penalty on Miro Heiskanen for holding. Toews had the puck for a good 20 seconds, skating circles around the Stars defenders without losing the puck. The penalty set up a four-on-three for 50 seconds. 

The teams entered the second intermission with about 48 seconds of four-on-three time remaining. The Blackhawks looked much better in the middle frame than they did in the opening frame, registering 13 shots during the period. 

 

Third period

The final frame began with an unsuccessful power play for the Blackhawks. Despite starting with the man advantage, they could not generate any meaningful offense. Instead, Dallas gets out of a sticky situation unharmed. 

About two and a half minutes into the period, Khudobin made the save of the game, completely doing the splits to make a save on Dominik Kubalik, who had a wide open cage. The Hawks had a few follow-up chances, but Khudobin was able to shut the door. 

The best chance for the Stars in the period came on a power play after a David Kampf delay of game penalty. The Stars had a great sequence and nearly capitalized, but the Blackhawks penalty kill stood tall and Lehner made two excellent saves to keep the home team from taking the lead. 

With three minutes remaining, it appeared the Hawks had taken the lead in Dallas after a Dylan Strome deflection on a Maatta shot. However, the play was waved off immediately for a high stick and after review it was confirmed.

The game indeed required overtime, and the Stars and Blackhawks entered overtime tied on the scoreboard and in almost every team statistic.

 

Overtime

The Blackhawks took possession first as Toews, Kane, and Keith took the ice first for the visitors. A Hawks turnover led to a Heiskanen breakaway, but Toews was able to break up the chance and force a turnover. 

An excellent individual effort from Patrick Kane nearly ended the game. Kane stole the puck from a Dallas defender and took off, creating a breakaway for himself. Unfortunately, Kane couldn’t capitalize. It hurt even worse because the Hawks were called for too many men on the ice after that chance. The Stars took their timeout before heading to the powerplay.

The Blackhawks killed the penalty, despite great chances by Dallas. Andrew Shaw had a semi breakaway just before time expired and looked to be tripped, instead, nothing was called and Shaw was furious. It appeared to be a penalty, but the game entered the shootout. 

 

Shootout

One shooter for Dallas, one goal. Joe Pavelski scored on the first shot of the overtime. Toews matched that by missing on his move to tuck the puck past Khudobin. 

The second Dallas shooter, Tyler Seguin, also scored. Both goals were five-hole on Lehner. Patrick Kane also missed on his chance and the Stars took the game in the shootout, 2–1. 

 

Quick hits

  • Lehner looked good: Although he is not a shootout goalie, Lehner looked incredible during actual hockey play. He has continued to keep the Hawks in games and there is no denying that he may have been the best free-agent signing this past summer for any team in the league. The Stars had 15 high-danger chances in this game, 10 of them came in the first period. He only let one in. Yes ladies and gents, that’s really good. 
  • Good penalty kill: The Blackhawks penalty kill looked sensational all night. The final powerplay in overtime allowed a lot of chances, but Lehner stood tall. If the kill can look like they did tonight all season, they will be in good shape going forward. 
  • First one feels good: Olli Maatta scored his first goal as a Blackhawk tonight on a nice two-on-one with Alex DeBrincat. Maatta has improved every game with the Hawks and is proving to be a nice addition to this defensive group. Maatta also nearly had an assist on Strome’s high stick redirect goal. 

 

The Blackhawks will host this same Dallas Stars team on Tuesday, November 26 at the United Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CST.

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