Chicago Blackhawks Fall 6-2 To The Blues, Fowler Scores Twice In Winter Classic

Despite the festive atmosphere of a chilly Winter Classic, the Blackhawks’ losing streak extended to five games as the St. Louis Blues skated away with a decisive 6-2 victory on Tuesday, December 31st, at Wrigley Field. Cam Fowler, the first NHL player to skate outdoors in his 1,000th career game, scored two goals for the Blues to help secure the win. The Blackhawks, aiming to leverage the thrill of the outdoor contest, struggled to contain the Blues’ offensive onslaught. St. Louis dominated possession throughout the outdoor game, creating numerous scoring chances and ultimately overwhelming Chicago’s defense. The Blackhawks are still searching for consistency as they face another setback in a challenging season. Heading back to United Center, the Blackhawks host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday, and the Blues head back to St. Louis to take on the Ottawa Senators.

Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:

Hall – Bedard – Bertuzzi

Foligno – Dickinson – Donato

Teravainen – Nazar – Mikheyev

Maroon – Reichel – Smith

Allan/Vlasic – Jones

Brodie – Kasier

Martinez – Crevier

Mrazek

Soderblom

St. Louis Blues Lineup:

Saad – Thomas – Buchnevich

Holloway – Schenn – Kyrou

Neighbours – Sundqvist – Bolduc

Toropchenko – Walker – Texier

Fowler – Parayko

Broberg – Faulk

Suter – Tucker

Binnington

Hofer

   Opening the scoring early into the first period, Cam Fowler picked up his second goal of the season at 18:20 to put St. Louis ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal. He struck from between the hash marks after he cut down from the point and took a pass from Pavel Buchnevich from behind the goal line to score on the second shot on goal. Fowler had originally passed the puck to Robert Thomas, who sent it over to Zachary Bolduc, and then Bolduc gave it to Buchnevich. Jordan Kyrou went for his fifth career Winter Classic point when he made it a 2-0 lead for the Blues with 11:50 on the clock in the first when he received a pass from Jake Neighbours, who was above the right circle and took a pass from Justin Faulk, who was below the right circle. With 4:34 remaining in the opening frame, Taylor Hall cut it to 2-1 on Chicago’s fourth shot on goal on the power play for his eighth goal of the season. Hall drove up into the Blues’ zone with the puck, lost it and Lukas Reichel attempted to get ahold of it, and then it got to Ryan Donato, who sent it down and Hall found the back of the net.

   Justin Faulk struck at 12:45 of the second period to make it 3-1 with his second goal of the season on a one-timer that went in past Petr Mrazek straight through traffic from inside the blue line. Faulk took a pass from Philip Broberg right off the face-off before grabbing the third Blues tally. At 7:12, Jordan Binnington stopped Taylor Hall on a breakaway with a right pad save… 46 seconds later, Dylan Holloway scored to make it 4-1 for St. Louis. After a shot from above the right circle hit off the left post from Faulk, the puck got to Holloway, who settled it and before Mrazek could react, he found the back of the net. Later into the middle frame, Cam Fowler struck again for his second of the night and his third of the season, extending it to 5-1 at 2:09. He shot from inside the left point, the puck going right through everything, even Mrazek, who didn’t appear to notice it.

   Tyler Bertuzzi cut it to 5-2, scoring the only other Chicago goal with 8:45 on the clock in the third period. He got the puck from Seth Jones, who took Connor Bedard’s pass, after Bedard drove out of Chicago’s zone with the puck, racing into the Blues’ zone. Bertuzzi scored a power-play goal, which marked his 12th goal of the season, and he leads the team with a total of 12 goals so far. Off a rebound of Justin Faulk’s shot, Alexandre Texier found the back of the net with 3:42 left to play for the 6-2 final.

Nick Foligno on the atmosphere, the Blackhawks’ performance, disappointment and frustration, and figuring it out: “It’s unbelievable… Chicago knows how to celebrate sports and our fans did not disappoint today, and I think that’s what makes it so darn difficult right now. It’s just embarrassing to lose 6-2 in an environment like that at home. Our fans deserve better. It’s in this room to figure it out because that’s three games in a row where it’s not good enough… On this stage, with the excitement we had before the game, I thought this was going to be a turning point for our club, and obviously, it wasn’t,” – “I look at myself and think, what can we do different, and I think every guy has to do that because it’s just not working. At some point, the fans will be tired of hearing it, you guys will be tired of hearing it, and we will be tired of saying it. So, it’s doing it and just understanding how hard you have to play, how committed you have to be to winning hockey games, and we can’t be behind the eight ball at the start of the game. I’m not pointing fingers, it’s just being a pro, it’s understanding… In that game, each team is looking for momentum, and we give it to them right away. We’re not a team right now that’s built to withstand being down two, and we can come back and we kind of made a game of it, but then boom, they get some seeing-eye shots, we’re not committed to blocking shots, and helping Petr – he can’t see those pucks, you can see how dark it is behind the glass, so when he sees those shots coming, you lose it for a second. It’s the things we didn’t do, we didn’t capitalize on our chances as well, you know, we definitely had chances to tie the game, to score, and you got to look at yourself and say, I got to do more, right? So, that’s where this team’s at right now. No one’s going to feel sorry for us, no one’s going to try to help us out. We got to help ourselves out, and that’s the disappointing part- it seems like we crumble right now as opposed to digging in,” – “Even last game against Dallas, in the third period, we’re like, alright let’s go get our game going, we had gotten something going at the end of the second, and then boom, they score first shift. It just can’t happen with this group, and we have to find a way to be really diligent in our game, until it comes to us a little bit more, until we’re the ones that are just going over the board momentum and right now it seems like we have to fight so hard for momentum, and then we just give it away as opposed to making that team have to earn it. Tonight, it’s just disappointing, especially in this environment. We battle back, we get that shorthanded break and we don’t get it in, but okay, they can’t come back and score on you. That’s where we’re fighting through right now, and you know, it’s going to have to be figured out room.”

Notes:

– Petr Mrazek allowed six on a total of 28 shots.

– This is the Blackhawks’ fifth straight loss and fell to 0-5-0 in Winter Classic games, including 0-2-0 at Wrigley Field.

– The Blackhawks gave up two power-play goals in the first 8:10 of the game.

– The temperature at the time of puck drop was 38 degrees, and the attendance was 40,933 – the League’s second sellout at Wrigley, which also hosted the Blackhawks vs. Red Wings in 2009 (Detroit defeated Chicago 6-4 on January 1st in front of 40,818).

– Connor Bedard extended his point streak to five games with his assist (three goals, four assists)

– After missing eight straight games, as well as nine of the previous 10 due to a back injury – Craig Smith made his return to the lineup. He was minus-1 in 9:36 of ice time and had three shots on goal.

– Jordan Binnington made a total of 28 saves for St. Louis.

– The St. Louis Blues improved to 3-0-0 in Winter Classic games, 2-0-0 against the Blackhawks. In the 2017 Winter Classic, they won 4-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on January 2nd.

– The St. Louis Blues had 12 players with at least a point.

– Justin Faulk recorded a goal and picked up a pair of assists… His goal was his second of the season and was his first goal in 35 games. He last scored on October 10th against the San Jose Sharks.

– Jordan Kyrou had an NHL outdoor game record four points (two goals, two assists) in their 6-4 win in the 2022 Winter Classic against the Minnesota Wild at Target Field.

– The St. Louis Blues joined the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals as the only teams to win their first three outdoor games.

– STL: 18-17-4, Hawks: 12-24-2