Thursday night the Blackhawks were back home for the top half of a home-and-home series with the Dallas Stars. This game was a different scenario than last season, where the Blackhawks played a weekend home-and-home and beat the Stars twice. The Stars came into Chicago with nearly an identical record to the Blackhawks and tied in points, at 27. As you might expect, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alex Radulov and John Klingberg led the team in scoring. Also, as we have come to expect, the Dallas goaltending was somewhat of a mess. New starter Ben Bishop came into the game with a very average 2.89 GAA and .912 save percentage. New coach, same old Stars. The difference has been their home record, where they were 9-2-0, but they did not have the home crowd behind them in this game.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Richard Panik
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Ryan Hartman – Alex DeBrincat
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – John Hayden
Duncan Keith – Cody Franson
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta
As the game opened, it only took the Blackhawks a couple of minutes to gain the power play advantage. That power play almost turned into a shorthanded goal for Mattias Janmark, but Corey Crawford made the stop. Janmark later returned the favor just a couple of minutes later by taking a tripping penalty against John “#BigJohnStudd” Hayden. During said powerplay, Alex Debrincat had everyone in the arena thinking that he has scored a power play goal, even the spotlight guy, but play continued. Alas, the replay confirmed that the shot actually rang solidly off the crossbar.
The first period really seemed slow to a crawl but then Mattias Janmark resurfaced once again. He was able to beat the Hawks defenders around the net and then also beat both Corey Crawford and Jonathan Toews to the far post with a wrap-around goal.
That lead lasted all of nine seconds, as #ElGato struck once again. He found himself 12 feet out from the Stars goaltender, following the post goal faceoff, and snapped his 11th goal of the year past Ben Bishop’s blocker. Debrincat seemed like the only Blackhawks player that was engaged in this game at that point, though.
Things started looking up for the Blackhawks when they went back to the power play, but this particular power play was a complete and utter disaster. Cody Franson, who was already having a rough night, turned the puck over at the Stars blue line, which resulted in a Radek Faksa break-a-way. Patrick Kane tried to tie him up from behind but instead took a hooking infraction that resulted in a penalty shot.
Faksa somehow froze Corey Crawford, and easily snapped a shot by him for the rare shorthanded penalty shot goal. I’m not really sure just what Crawford was expecting, but Faksa displayed all the signs of shooting, including kicking his right leg back. That said, I would have been pretty perturbed myself if the team in front of me had given up two partial or full shorthanded break-a-ways in the first period alone already, too.
Even though the Blackhawks had three and half power plays in the first, they were out shot 15-7.
Speaking of power plays, The Hawks opened up the second period finishing up the rollover penalty from the first and scored their lone power play goal of the night. It was Artem Anisimov slamming home a Patrick Kane feed from the corner, to tie the game back up.
A majority of the second period was excruciatingly boring and pretty forgettable. So boring and uneventful that the shots were only 5-3 in favor of the Stars with just over five minutes remaining. This was when Stars fourth liner Remi Elie burst in around the Blackhawks defense and juked Corey Crawford into the first row to give the Stars a 3-2 lead.
The third period had some action at each end, until Patrick Kane tied the game about 5 minutes in. Kane was planted in an unusual spot for him, which was in front of the net. Gustav Forsling’s shot found Kane’s tape and he redirected the puck past Bishop.
Just moments into overtime that pesky Mattias Janmark struck again. He picked up a loose puck at the Hawks blue line and beat a flat footed Duncan Keith to the net, lifting a shot over Crawford’s blocker for the game winner.
Pluses
- #ElGato just keeps rolling along. At least someone other than Artem Anisimov is hot for this team.
- Corey Crawford had a rough first two periods, but he made up for it in the third. If he wasn’t solid in that period, the Blackhawks don’t get a point.
- Gustav Forsling might have had his best game this season. He had an assist and led the Blackhawks in time on ice.
Minuses
- It was amazing that despite getting out shot by 13, the possession numbers were somewhat decent. Debrincat led the team at almost 59% 5-on-5.
- Cody Franson had been great as of late but was NOT good, more specifically, in the first period. Quenneville noticed as well, giving him a defensive corp low 12:39 of ice time. I expect to possibly see him take a night off soon.
- Speaking of nights off, Ryan Hartman only saw 7:43, so he may join Franson.
- I am a big Richard Panik guy, but he has to start producing points. This is not to say that he has not provided other things on the ice, but at his new salary he needs to be scoring some goals. I hope this works like it has for Debrincat and the third line, because the game after I called them out, they erupted.
- The power play has been better lately, but going 1-7 at home is just brutal. Also, when you get out shot by 13 at home and you get a point, you are very lucky.