The Blackhawks had taken the lead early on Tuesday, April 2nd when they played against the New York Islanders at the UBS Arena. Despite their strong effort and keeping a 1-0 lead through the first two periods, they took a 2-1 loss when the Islanders made a comeback in the third period. Jason Dickinson scored the lone goal for Chicago, and both Bo Horvat and Simon Holmstrom scored the two goals in New York’s 2-1 victory. After coming from a 4-3 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, the Islanders moved within one point of the Washington Capitals for second into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Blackhawks go back home on Saturday to take on the Dallas Stars.
Blackhawks lineup against the Islanders:
Bedard – Dickinson – Kurashev
Foligno – Johnson – Raddysh
Reichel – Athanasiou – Anderson
Slaggert – Entwistle – Donato
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Tinordi – Kaiser
Soderblom
Mrazek
Islanders lineup against the Blackhawks:
Cizikas – Horvat – Barzal
Engvall – Nelson – Palmieri
Lee – Pageau – Fasching
Martin – MacLean – Clutterbuck
Romanov – Dobson
Pelech – Pulock
Reilly – Bortuzzo
Sorokin
Varlamov
At 12:11 of the first period, the Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead. Jason Dickinson recorded his 21st goal of the season finishing off a pass from Connor Bedard during a 2-on-1. The rush began after the puck had been turned over in the offensive zone by Noah Dobson. Chicago held their lead throughout the remainder of the opening frame.
In the middle, Chicago was able to continue to keep their 1-0 lead. Throughout the first two periods, the Blackhawks were outshot… Petr Mrazek made some big saves for Chicago in both the first and second periods, keeping the Islanders from tying the game.
Bo Horvat tied it early in the third at 18:27 with his 31st goal of the season and his second in the past two games on a power play. He received a saucer pass from Mat Barzal, who collected a loose puck below the goal line before passing it to Horvat, and he beat Petr Mrazek from the right face-off dot glove side. With 10:35 remaining in the final frame, Simon Holmstrom put New York in front 2-1 for their first lead of the night to record his 14th of the season. Prior to this game, Holmstrom had been a healthy scratch from the past three and returned, scoring for the Islanders to get a 2-1 final.
Connor Bedard on the loss and chemistry: “I thought it was okay – I mean, they out-played us and I think they deserve the win but overall, I didn’t think we were terrible. We had some chances, but not really enough high-quality chances I’d say,” – “I thought we were better tonight than the first game. We were pretty decent against Philly, but I think the more you play with people, the more you figure out their game, and the better it gets. So, we hope to kind of continue that.”
Philipp Kurashev on the Blackhawks’ 2-1 loss and Jason Dickinson’s goal: “I think we played solid but then of course, they have a really good power play and they made us pay on that – I don’t think we had many, many opportunities. We tried to do our best and tried to kind of force a mistake from them and then bury it, but obviously, it wasn’t enough today… ‘Bedsy’ just made a really nice pass, and then ‘Dicky’ buried it. It was a nice play overall.”
Notes:
– Petr Mrazek made a total of 27 saves for Chicago, and Ilya Sorokin made a total of 18 saves for New York.
Sorokin lost in his previous six starts for New York.
– Jarred Tinordi had played in his 200th NHL career game, his 91st with the Blackhawks.
– The Blackhawks led in scoring chances through the first two periods 11-2 when Connor Bedard was on the ice, however, they would trail 18-8 whenever he was off the ice.
– Reaching the 50-point mark for the first time in his NHL career, Philipp Kurashev achieved this when he recorded the secondary assist on Jason Dickinson’s goal. He has more points this season in 68 games than in 137 games over his previous two seasons combined (46 points).
– Seth Jones had led all skaters with 26:56 of ice time, four seconds shy of reaching the 27-minute mark for the third time in the previous four games. He had been ranked fourth in the NHL averaging 25:33 of ice time per game.
– Connor Bedard had been announced as “Rookie of the Month” (for March). This is the third time this season he’s been named this, being the first player to win this award at least three times in a season since Connor McDavid in the 2015-16 season. In March, Bedard had a total of 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 14 games.
– The New York Islanders won their second back-to-back game for the first time this season… entering the game 0-6-3.
