Arvid Soderblom stopped 27 Seattle shots and the Chicago Blackhawks (12–19–2) jumped to 4–3–0 since Anders Sorensen took over for the departed Luke Richardson with a 3–1 over the Seattle Kraken on home ice on Thursday night. Defenseman Nolan Allan scored his first career NHL goal and forward Teuvo Teravainen continued his hot streak with two assists, but both were overshadowed by forward Ilya Mikheyev’s two-goal performance on the night.
First period
Chicago would play very well in the first period of play and a tic-tac-toe early in the period with forwards Connor Bedard and Ryan Donato was turned aside by Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi would hit the post a few minutes later and Chicago had nothing to show for on the scoresheet when it could have easily been a two-goal lead.
Forward Taylor Hall would find himself in a 3-on-1 and fired a shot into the shins of Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson and Daccord would slam the door on a rebound. Chicago continued to put the pressure on early with nothing to show for their excellent efforts when Allan dinged another shot off the post.
Good things happened for the Chicago offense and one could argue they completely outplayed Seattle even though the 0–0 score would not indicate as such.
Second period
Chicago would take that momentum into the middle frame and finally found the back of the net when Mikheyev scored his fifth of the season on a goal assisted by Teravainen at the 10:54 mark. After a terrible turnover by Seattle in their own zone, the puck found the stick of Teravainen, who took the puck to the net and made a nice pass to Mikheyev for an easy deflection while the forward slid on one knee. The goal gave Chicago a 1–0 lead and also gave Mikheyev three straight games with a goal.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 09:06 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Teuvo Teravainen.
Chicago: 1
Seattle: 0#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/ha1fvcSFdT— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) December 20, 2024
Third period
Mikheyev scored his second of the game and sixth of the season at the 6:06 mark of the third period to give Chicago a 2–0 lead. Bertuzzi found a streaking Teravainen with a nice pass in the neutral zone and dumped a pass back to Mikheyev, who beat Daccord with a wrist shot glove side.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 13:54 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi.
Chicago: 2
Seattle: 0#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/zSrZOXzCHX— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) December 20, 2024
Seattle would finally crack the Soderblom code with a snap shot from forward Ryker Evans at the 11:26 mark of the period. The goal, Evans’ fourth of the season, looked like the momentum Seattle needed to turn things around, but Chicago would answer a few minutes later to take back the two-goal lead.
Allan made a great cross-ice pass to Donato and snuck behind the defense and buried home a wrist shot behind Daccord. An excellent read by Allan and an even better feed by Donato was exactly what Chicago needed as the Kraken were starting to put the pressure on Chicago.
Chicago goal!
Scored by Nolan Allan with 04:49 remaining in the 3rd period.
Assisted by Ryan Donato and Connor Murphy.
Chicago: 3
Seattle: 1#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/QWwcwzzkjM— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) December 20, 2024
Chicago would be outshot 28–24 for the night and lost 57.4% of the draws but would ultimately go home with the 3–1 victory.
Chicago hits the road for a three-games away from home ice with a 3 p.m. CST game against the Calgary Flames on Saturday that can be seen on CHSN.
Analysis
Mikheyev has scored in three straight games after being a ghost on the scoresheet to start this season. The 30-year-old Russian forward now has six goals and five assists in 31 games played this season. The veteran of now 301 NHL games played will not kill you in his own end and will not give you a ton of chances but when he is scoring you know things are going Chicago’s way.
Soderblom stopped 27 Kraken shots for his fifth win of the season. The 25-year-old Swedish-born goaltender has been a pleasant surprise this early part of the season and has won four of his last five starts.
Chicago outplayed Seattle for most of the first half of the game and found themselves with a two-goal lead and weathered the Kraken storm when it looked like the home team was ready to make a mistake and find themselves tied before Allan’s goal in the third period, and in the postgame interviews, captain Nick Foligno probably said it best:
“I think it’s the first one since I’ve been here. It’s a good feeling. It’s a credit to the guys and believing in what we’re trying to do here and knowing there’s more to give and expecting more of ourselves. I think we’re excited [with] the direction we’re going with Anders here, and he’s done a great job of coming in and solidifying some things, but it’s a credit to the group.”