The Chicago Blackhawks, fresh off a solid week of trades, skated into Music City and earned a point in their fifth straight contest in a 3–2 overtime loss to the Nashville Predators. Steven Stamkos scored his 576th career goal, passing the great Mike Bossy for 23rd in NHL history, beating Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom for all three goals on his way to his 14th career hat trick.
First period
Nashville jumped out with a pep in their step and Chicago looked to be sluggish after playing on home ice the night before. Nashville outshot Chicago 17–6 overall in the period and the visiting team was lucky to escape with a 0–0 tie after one period of action.
“I think they kind of jumped on us in the first,” Alex Vlasic said during his postgame interview. “I don’t know what the shots were, but it definitely wasn’t pretty. I think they just kind of came with a little bit more jam. I think we kind of found a way to stick to it, and on a back-to-back sometimes it’s not going to be a pretty game. We gave ourselves a fighting chance.”
Second period
As the game of hockey goes sometimes, the team dominating the play on the ice is not always the first to score, as Vlasic scored his third of the season beating Predators goaltender Justus Annunen at the 1:56 mark of the middle frame.
Chicago put some sustained pressure in their own zone when forward Connor Bedard found Vlasic along the blue line, who fired a wrist shot through three Nashville players, one in which deflected the shot over the shoulder of Annunen, for the 1–0 lead.
Alex Vlasic’s shot from the point goes off a deflection and in, and he’s being credited with his 3rd goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/O04SCZKdTp
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 9, 2025
Stamkos scored his first goal of the game beating Soderblom with a wrist shot only 40 seconds after Chicago took the lead. Chicago defenseman Alex Martinez took a double minor for high sticking and Nashville did not waste any time bouncing back from the Chicago goal.
Stamkos gave Nashville its first lead of the night, at the 12:20 mark of the period, when a loose puck found the stick of center Ryan O’Reilly, who made a slick backhand feed to Stamkos, who buried it to give Nashville the 2–1 lead.
Third period
Chicago would be completely outplayed again in the third period and the only player on the ice that was playing well was Soderblom, as he stopped 37 shots in regulation, while Chicago was only able to muster 19 shots in regulation.
One of those shots tied the game at 2–2 when Ilya Mikheyev scored his 14th goal of the season on a wrist shot at the 12:22 mark of the period. Nashville defense lost their structure and a feed around the boards to forward Ryan Donato led to a quick pass to Mikheyev, who slammed the puck home for the equalizer.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 07:38 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Ryan Donato and Connor Murphy.
Nashville: 2
Chicago: 2#CHIvsNSH #Smashville #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/KlPHtx7qhK— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 9, 2025
Overtime
Stamkos would finish off his hat trick at the 2:39 mark of the overtime as Fedor Svechkov found himself 20 feet outside of the crease and brought everyone to him and dish a great feed to Stamkos, who had a wide-open net to fire home the game winner. The overtime 3-on-3 nonsense bit Chicago in the behind with a late change that led Nashville on a 3-on-2.
HAT TRICK COMPLETED 🎩🎩🎩 pic.twitter.com/PcQdVrPBpJ
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) March 9, 2025
Chicago plays next on the road as they take on the Colorado Avalanche for a 8 p.m. CDT puck drop in Colorado on Monday.
Analysis
Chicago’s goaltending the past five games has been very good and that may be an understatement. Soderblom was fantastic in this one and the newly acquired Spencer Knight has been just as spectacular. After having to watch the goaltending struggle for months upon time, it is nice to see a stretch of hockey where the goaltending steals points.
Colton Dach continues to have an effect on games even when not putting up points and even stood up for a teammate by dropping the mitts. Dach has been one of the few Blackhawk forward playing with some grit and consistently playing through his man on the forecheck.
Chicago getting a point in five straight games is great to see. The goaltending has been spectacular, but sometimes a team is better with an “addition by subtraction” and the Blackhawks look to have found an extra gear in their skating. Let’s hope this continues over the next stretch of games.