CHICAGO – The Chicago Blackhawks took on the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night at the United Center. After winning big over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon, Chicago was looking for their second straight win.
New Jersey came in floundering despite their comfortable playoff position. This was the right time for the Hawks to get a win over the Devils.
The Blackhawks did not have an ideal start to the game. New Jersey took a 2-0 lead before the first period was halfway done. It looked like it would be an ugly one early on for Chicago.
The Devils eventually took a first-period penalty, which allowed the Blackhawks to gain some momentum. Tyler Bertuzzi scored his standard power-play goal by camping out in front of the net. This 2-1 score carried into the first intermission.
In the second period, both sides had up and down moments. Just over three minutes into the period, the Blackhawks saw their next power play go completely different from their first one.
The Hawks turned the puck over a handful of times, and eventually, Jesper Bratt made a play that allowed Ondrej Palat to shoot one in. Just over two minutes later, however, Ilya Mikheyev brought the Blackhawks back within one to keep Chicago in the game.
It looked like the Blackhawks tied it when Ryan Donato redirected an Artyom Levshunov shot, but a review determined that it wouldn’t count because of a high stick redirection.
Later in the middle frame, the Devils were awarded a controversial power-play chance. Simon Nemec was on top of Connor Bedard pushing him into the ice, and Landon Slaggert came to his rescue.
Slaggert was the only one who was given a penalty on the play, and New Jersey scored a power-play goal to make it 4-2. That score went into the second intermission. As you can imagine, the home crowd was not a fan of how that played out.
The third period was mostly uneventful. Things did get a little bit interesting at the end, however, when the Blackhawks pulled Spencer Knight for the extra attacker with over four minutes left. Frank Nazar scored to get the Blackhawks within one.
Although the Blackhawks looked like they might be able to get it tied up late, the Devils sealed it by throwing one into the empty net and walked away with a 5-3 victory. The comeback effort came up short.
One player who deserves some individual praise is Artyom Levshunov. He was the third star of the game in a loss thanks to his two assists. There are some things to work on when it comes to his defensive game and overall positioning, but his skating and offensive skills allow him to find the scoresheet often.
Chicago was unable to win two in a row for the first time in about a month. They fall to 2-7-1 in their last ten games and 21-42-9 overall.
Now, they will face an even tougher test as the Vegas Golden Knights will be in the building on Friday night. Chicago has played okay at times against elite teams, but they will need their very best to have a chance in this one.
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