The Blackhawks came into this game off the heels of their most exciting victory of the season and faced a Vegas Golden Knights team that had been heating up, as of late. Vegas won their previous three games with stellar goaltending by Marc Andre-Fleury and a healthy Max Pacioretty who had six goals in his previous 5 games.
There was some anticipation ahead of the game with the addition of Dylan Strome and Brandon Perlini in the Nick Schmaltz trade but the Blackhawks were also without Henri Jokiharju due to illness.
First Period
Daniel Carr got the Golden Knights on the board first with his first goal of the season at 2:10. A 3 on 2 turned into a 2 on 1 and he went top shelf over Corey Crawford’s glove side after a beautiful backhand saucer pass by Tomas Nosek.
For a minute it seemed like the Blackhawks responded as Dominik Kahun tapped one past Fleury who lost his net. Unfortunately, the goal was overturned on a Vegas challenge and Kahun was clearly offsides as he came into the offensive zone. A couple minutes later the Kahun-Anisimov-Kampf line had another solid opportunity but Fleury made a great save to stop Kampf.
At 12:14 Alex Tuch put the Golden Knights up 2-0 with an assist from Crawford. Crawford tried to play the puck but his pass went off the boards to Tuch who sniped it top shelf.
The Blackhawks couldn’t convert on terrific chances by Strome or Toews but the Golden Knights had no problem extending the lead 3-0. Cody Eakin snuck in behind the defense and pulled out a nice forehand-backhand move to freeze Crawford.
A minute later Shea Theodore was called for Interference but it was more of the same for the Blackhawks as they could not convert on the power play.
Second Period
Gustav Forsling got the Blackhawks on the board :29 into the period on a long shot from the blue line that was redirected by the Golden Knights.
After 5 minutes of back and forth play Patrick Kane was called for a high-sticking on Theodore. The Golden Knights were able to capitalize on the power play as William Karlsson sniped a shot over Crawford’s glove hand again as the result of a good screen by Ryan Reaves to make it 4-1.
Strome as was able to get one back for the Blackhawks at 11:16 after Kane slid a pass in front of the net that ended up on his stick. The new Blackhawks center did a good job of getting to the front of the net and was rewarded.
Just two minutes later Strome lost a faceoff to Reaves that went directly to Deryk Engelland who snapped one that redirected off of Reaves and past Crawford to extend the lead to 5-2.
With just :06 seconds left in the period Theodore scored with a shot that was redirected in between John Hayden’s legs to make the score 6-2 Golden Knights and that’s where the period ended.
Third Period
Crawford was pulled and Cam Ward started the final period for the Blackhawks and made a few saves. Forsling was called for a delay of game at 4:38 as he shot the puck over the glass. Just one minute later Karlsson was called for tripping Saad to create some 4 on 4 hockey.
Ten seconds later the Golden Knights capitalized on the spacious ice as Theodore coralled a puck on edge and knuckled one past Ward. Vegas extended the lead 7-2 and things were spiraling out of control for the Blackhawks.
It didn’t get better as an Eakin shot redirected off of Saad and then off of Keith’s skate right past Ward to make it 8-2. Erik Gustafsson was able to put home a Strome pass at 15:15 as Vegas was clearly in cruise control. The Hawks trailed 8-3.
That’s where it ended as the Vegas Golden Knights extended their winning streak to 4 games in dominating fashion over the Blackhawks.
There wasn’t much positive to build on and there is no use harping on all of the things that went wrong. There were too many and though it wouldn’t have made much difference, the Blackhawks had no puck luck. This is one of the games the team has to just put behind them and more forward.