Following a wild 7–4 victory at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Chicago Blackhawks returned to the United Center on Wednesday night against another Metropolitan Division foe, the New Jersey Devils. This was the second matchup between the two clubs this season. The Devils won the first matchup 4–1 in Newark on Dec. 14. The Hawks started Spencer Knight in net against New Jersey’s Jacob Markstrom.
First period
The Devils jumped out to a 1–0 lead on Nathan Bastian’s fourth of the season. Luke Hughes found Bastian alone in front of the net for the tap-in at 6:23.
New Jersey took a 2–0 just 27 seconds later on a power-play goal by Timo Meier. With Pat Maroon in the box for high-sticking, the Devils scored just five seconds into the power play as Dawson Mercer drove to the net and Meier tapped in his 23rd of the season.
The Hawks cut the deficit to 2–1 when Tyler Bertuzzi scored his 20th of the season. Artyom Levshunov made a diving save to keep the puck in the offensive zone and Ryan Donato lifted Mercer’s stick to retrieve the puck at the half boards. Donato then fed it to Bertuzzi in front of the net for the tap-in goal at 9:06. The Hawks trailed by one after 20 minutes.
Second period
The Devils took a 3–1 lead on a shorthanded goal by Ondrej Palat. The Hawks committed multiple turnovers with the man advantage, including a Maroon turnover that was taken the other way by Jesper Bratt, who skated to the left of Knight and dropped a pass to Palat, who snapped a wrist shot over Knight’s glove for his 14th of the season at 3:14.
The Hawks cut it to 3–2 on Ilya Mikheyev’s 17th of the season. Teuvo Teravainen fed Mikheyev, who flipped the puck in at 5:26.
The Hawks appeared to have tied it but Donato’s tip-in goal was reversed when instant replay ruled it was deflected in by a high stick.
With the Devils on a power play, Mercer fired a wrist shot past Knight for his 16th of the season at the 11:01 mark. The Devils led 4–2 after two periods.
Third period
Blackhawks interim head coach Anders Sorensen pulled his goaltender for the extra skater and they cashed in. Frank Nazar scored his seventh of the season at 17:10. Levshunov fired a shot from the point that was deflected by Donato and stopped by Markstrom, but Nazar poked in the rebound to cut the deficit to 4–3.
With 12.5 seconds left and the Hawks’ net empty, Stefan Noesen put this one away with his 20th of the season. Nico Hischier sprung Noesen loose and he went in alone and scored into the empty net to make it 5–3 before time eventually expired.
Analysis
The Blackhawks spent most of this game playing catch-up and they nearly tied it on two occasions — in the second period when the would-be tying goal was reversed by replay because of a high stick and a late third period push when they Hawks made it 4–3 with less than three minutes left. It was a rough start for Knight, who was shaky, allowing four goals on just 19 shots. On the positive side, Levshunov had two assists for his first multi-point game of his career, and would have had three had Donato’s tally counted.
The Blackhawks return to the United Center on Friday night when they host the Vegas Golden Knights. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. CDT on CHSN with the radio call on 720 AM WGN.