Connor Bedard scored a goal that was successfully challenged, however, he came back with a goal, and he recorded two assists to extend his point streak to three games (six points; two goals, four assists). The Chicago Blackhawks unfortunately lost their 21st straight road game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, February 19th. The Hurricanes defeated the Blackhawks with a 6-3 score.
Blackhawks lineup against the Hurricanes:
Foligno – Bedard – Kurashev
Beauvillier – Dickinson – Anderson
Katchouk – Johnson – Raddysh
Blackwell – Entwistle – Donato
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Tinordi – Crevier
Mrazek
Soderblom
Hurricanes lineup against the Blackhawks:
Svechnikov – Aho – Fast
Bunting – Drury – Necas
Martinook – Staal – Jarvis
Teravainen – Kotkaniemi – Noesen
Slavin – Burns
Orlov – Pesce
Skjei – Deangelo
Martin
Michael Bunting opened the scoring at 8:15 in the first period. Bunting scored off a feed by Martin Necas, getting his 13th goal of the season. For the remainder of the period, it stayed at a 1-0 score, with Carolina in the lead.
Early into the period and keeping that lead for the Hurricanes, Martin Necas got his second point of the night when he scored a wrist shot. He drove the slot before he snapped the shot past Petr Mrazek to get Carolina up at 2-0. Pushing it 3-0, Jesperi Kotkaniemi shot from the right face-off circle and scored a wrist shot that ended his 22-game drought. Sebastian Aho struck his 20th goal of the season… he skated around the net and scored with a fadeaway wrist shot. At 4:37 of the middle frame, Nick Foligno got Chicago on the board from the left circle, scoring on a spinning backhand to cut it 4-1.
Brent Burns scored a one-timer on a rebound on the power play to push it 5-1 at a sharp angle. It appeared Connor Bedard scored, however, it was successfully challenged for offside. This is Bedard’s third goal of the season that had been taken away for an offside challenge. Bedard made sure to get that goal back when he tapped in the puck at the right post, off a pass by Philipp Kurashev to make it 5-2. Getting it to 5-3, Tyler Johnson recorded his 11th goal of the season after redirecting a pass from Bedard at the net front, cutting it 5-3 at 10:52. Jordan Martinook struck the empty net for a 6-3 final at 1:49.
Nick Foligno on the frustration on a loss and if he thinks it’s a positive when the Blackhawks made that push in the third period: “It is – we talked about it as a group in between the second and the third how unacceptable our first two periods were in a lot of ways… Everyone’s working hard, and I get that. We’re just overthinking too much. When you get a team like them who come at you, you get caught and you overthink it. You look slow, you look lethargic and that’s what happened. Then all of a sudden in the third, where we just said, let’s forget all about that and just go play. Our game comes to life because of it. It’s a good lesson for us because this is just a year of lessons… It sucks saying that, but we’re going to have to go through it as a group here and understand that there’s a way you have to compete, play where you got to think but you also have to use your instincts. I think sometimes we overthink and our instincts get shunned away a little bit, and it cost us a game.”
Notes:
– Connor Bedard stats: 42 GP 17 Goals 22 Assists 39 Points
– Tyler Johnson stats: 41 GP, 11 Goals, 6 Assists, 17 Points
– Nick Foligno stats: 49 GP 13 Goals 12 Assists 25 Points
Foligno extended his point streak to six games (four goals, three assists)
– Anthony Beauvillier returned after missing 17 games on injured reserve.
– Petr Mrazek made 36 saves for Chicago, and Spencer Martin made 14 saves for Carolina.
– Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist… Martin Necas also had a goal and an assist. Michael Bunting, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Brent Burns, and Jordan Martinook all scored a goal.
