The Blackhawks came into this game following a 5-2 loss to a very good Columbus Blue Jackets team that exposed their poor team defense. They will look to bounce back against the Ottawa Senators who despite owning the league’s worst record defeated the Central Division leading Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Saturday.
First Period
It was a slow start for the Blackhawks and Slater Koekkoek was called for slashing just 1:15 into the game. The Senators immediately took advantage as Bobby Ryan took a pass from Matt Duchene and scored with an unlikely shot by just putting the puck on net. The puck trickled under Collin Delia’s right pad.
Only :34 later Rudolfs Balcers of the Senators stuffed one past Delia after a nice tic-tac-toe play. Mikkel Boedker to Chris Tierney to Balcers to make it 2-0 Senators at 2:40.
A minute later Cody Ceci was called for hooking Marcus Kruger. The red hot Blackhawks power play capitalized :31 seconds later with another solid play from who else but Patrick Kane to Jonathan Toews to Alex DeBrincat. He put it in from just outside the blue paint to cut the Senators’ lead in half
DeBrincat tied the game at 2 at 5:07 in the period. After a tape-to-tape pass from Dominik Kahun all DeBrincat had to do was have his stick on the ice with blade open to put it top shelf over Anders Nilsson.
The Senators took a 3-2 lead at 7:55 aftern Colin White whacked home a Mark Stone rebound. Delia was pulled after the goal and replaced by Cam Ward.
In what seemed like an eterinity, another four and a half minutes passed before the next goal of the game. A very sneaky Kane caught the Senators in the midst of a change and snuck behind Ryan. He received a nice pass from Duncan Keith and sniped it far side to even the game at 3.
Dylan Strome got in on the goal scoring action and redirected an errant puck near the goal line towards the net. It snuck under Nilsson’s arm stick side to give the Blackhawks their first lead of the night at 4-3. Nilsson was replaced by Craig Anderson in net following the goal.
The change didn’t matter much because at 14:53 Dylan Sikura hit Brandon Saad right on the tape for an easy redirected goal to make it 5-3 Blackhawks.
The scoring wasn’t over for the period as Stone got the Senators within one goal before the end of the first period. Stone sniped the one-timer from the slot after a perfect pass from Brady Tkachuk.
The first period would end 5-4 Blackhawks and was the first time they scored 5 goals in a period since the 2017-2018 season opener agains the Penguins.
Second Period
The second picked up just where the first left off. White tallied his second goal of the game to tie it up at 5 just 1:32 into the period. He sniped home a Tkachuk one-time pass from the top of the circle that beat Ward high glove side.
Dylan DeMelo was called form holding Kruger a minute later but the Blackhawks did not capitalize this time.
Cam Ward made some nice saves and kept the Senators from scoring on some nice opportunities until the next Blackhawks goal.
At 8:19 DeBrincat sniped home a one-timer for the hat trick. A patient Dylan Strome gathered a long rebound and took his time to find DeBrincat cross-ice to give the Blackhawks a 6-5 Lead.
Shortly thereafter Connor Murphy and Ryan got into a little scuffle following the play and were both given two minutes for roughing. During the 4-on-4 Kane looked like he was shot out of a cannon down the right side but the puck slipped away before he could get a shot or pass off.
There was so much scoring in this game that even Gustav Forsling got in on the action. He fired a Saad backhand one-time pass past Andersen to extend the Blackhawks lead to 7-5.
At 11:14 Ryan was called for another penalty while hooking Murphy. The Blackhawks did not make very good use of the power play and had one of their worst displays in over a month.
Four minutes later Kahun, who has played in every game this season, committed his first penalty of the season. The Blackhawks had no issues killing it and headed back to even strength.
The period would end 7-5 Blackhawks and there weren’t any goals for 9:29 to end the period.
Third Period
The final period started out very slow compared to the first two without very many shots by either team. DeMelo was called for delay of game after sending the puck over the glass in the defensive zone sending the Blackhawks power play.
After a less than stellar on performance on their previous power play the Blackhawks made up for it in style. Kane to DeBrincat to Toews for the eighth Blackhawks goal of the game. That combination in any order is becoming lethal on the power play.
The Senators were not giving up in a game that was proof that anything can happen. Thomas Chabot wheeled around the defense and roofed a goal from an improbable angle on a delayed Blackhawks penalty to make the game 8-6 with 11 minutes left.
Chabot added his second goal of the game as he made his way in from the point to put a rebound past Ward. That made the score 8-7 Blackhawks with 5:17 left to play in the game.
Koekkoek was called for hooking Zack Smith with 1:40 left in the game. The Senators pulled Anderson following the faceoff but they were unable to even register a shot in 6-on-4 action to end the game. A 8-7 Blackhawks win
Highlights
- DeBrincat tallied 5 points with 2 assists and 3 goals for his 4th career hat trick.
- Kane with 2 assists and 1 goal extends his point streak to 18 games and assist streak to 16 games.
- Toews tallies 1 assist and 1 goal.
Lowlights
- Giving up 7 goals against the worst team in the NHL further exposing their poor team defense.
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