Chicago has had a tough season with multiple losses and even games where they were able to put in better effort but end up losing. Despite the emotional season for them, they’ve had some outstanding victories throughout it! Honestly, from the looks of it, they could truly have a bright future. However, they lost against the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Tuesday, April 16th at the T-Mobile Arena. Jason Dickinson scored the lone goal for Chicago, and with this victory for Vegas, they’ve moved into third place in the Pacific Division. Petr Mrazek played amazingly, keeping the team in this game with a total of 32 saves on 34 shots, and Frank Nazar stood out once again for the Hawks. The Blackhawks will play their final game of the season on Thursday against the Los Angeles Kings.
Blackhawks lineup against the Golden Knights:
Foligno – Bedard – Kurashev
Reichel – Athanasiou – Donato
Dickinson – Nazar – Anderson
Slaggert – Johnson – Raddysh
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Tinordi – Murphy
Mrazek
Soderblom
Golden Knights lineup against the Blackhawks:
Cotter – Hertl – Dorofeyev
Barbashev – Eichel – Marchessault
Howden – Karlsson – Amadio
Rendbjerg – Roy – Kolesar
Hanifin – Hague
McNabb – Theodore
Whitecloud – Martinez
Thompson
Hill
The first period had been completely scoreless, neither team was successful in scoring. However, the Golden Knights struck in the second, scoring one goal… in the third, they had a 2-0 lead until the Blackhawks cut the lead, and then Vegas wrapped it up with a 3-1 final when Nicolas Roy scored an empty-netter.
Brayden McNabb struck late into the third at 3:35 after being stuck with a 0-0 score, giving Vegas a 1-0 lead to finally get one past Petr Mrazek. It had been McNabb’s fourth goal of the season, as well as the 28th of his NHL career.
At 12:47 of the third period, Michael Amadio pushed it to 2-0 when he roofed a wrister on a breakaway after he had stolen the puck from Frank Nazar. Jason Dickinson cut it to 2-1 with his 22nd goal of the season. He scored off his own rebound on a net-front scramble. Both Connor Bedard (39) and Philipp Kurashev (36) recorded the assists on Dickinson’s goal. Nicolas Roy struck the empty net for a 3-1 final with 1:36 remaining in the third.
Seth Jones on the game, the loss, and good stretches: “We put on a pretty solid game, to be honest. We had a lot of O-zone chances – I thought, defensively, we were pretty solid as well. We didn’t give them too many… They just capitalized on some of their chances, and we didn’t,” – “We have to look at the fatality of the season, right? It hasn’t been great. We played some good stretches, but it hasn’t been nearly as consistent as we want it to be. We try to take the good things that we were doing during these stretches. You know, we started scoring some goals, which obviously helps… then tonight, we only get one. It’s hard to win with just one goal, and I think a lot of problems are solved when you score three or four, it could be a different game.”
Notes:
– Both Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev recorded their 39th and 36th assists of the season, which added to their team-leading helper totals.
Bedard’s 39th assist of the season made him tie Nathan MacKinnon for the seventh-most by an 18-year-old in NHL history. Sidney Crosby (63), Dale Hawerchuk (58), Steve Yzerman (48), Wayne Gretzky (43), Jimmy Carlson (42), and Phil Housley (40) had more…
– With his lone goal for the Blackhawks, he ended a five-game pointless skid.
– Frank Nazar played in his second NHL career game and yet again, stood out! He very well had been one of the Hawks’ best players.
– Nick Foligno led the team with four shots on goal.
– Logan Thompson made a total of 22 saves for Vegas.
