Taking their fifth straight loss, the Chicago Blackhawks played against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday, December 7th at United Center, falling to Winnipeg 4-2. The Jets spoiled Anders Sorensen’s first game as the Blackhawks coach. Sorensen was named as interim coach for the Blackhawks on Thursday, replacing Luke Richardson. Chicago came out strong, opening the scoring for an early lead, and broke the 1-1 tie to take back the lead, however, Winnipeg battled back to take the two points. Mark Scheifele had scored the tie-breaking goal in the third period to help the Jets secure this victory. Both Alex Vlasic and Alec Martinez scored for the Blackhawks. With this win, the Winnipeg Jets are the first team this season to reach 20 wins.
Chicago Blackhawks Lineup:
Kurashev – Bedard – Teravainen
Foligno – Dickinson – Mikheyev
Maroon – Reichel – Smith
Vlasic – Murphy
Allan – Martinez
Kaiser – Brodie
Mrazek
Soderblom
Winnipeg Jets Lineup:
Connor – Scheifele – Vilardi
Namestnikov – Lambert – Perfetti
Niederreiter – Lowry – Appleton
Barron – Kupari – Iafallo
Morrissey – Pionk
Fleury – DeMelo
Stanley – Heinola
Hellebuyck
Comrie
Opening the scoring with 10:59 on the clock in the first to give Chicago the lead, Alex Vlasic scored his second of the season, the first being in their previous game on December 4th. Teuvo Teravainen passed the puck to Connor Bedard, who sent it down to Vlasic, and then Vlasic gave it back to Teravainen… taking a drop pass from Teuvo, Vlasic scored on a slap shot from the high slot on the power play with both Ryan Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi providing screens in front. With a redirect at 6:29 of the first, Gabriel Vilardi knotted the game at 1-1 after the Jets got the puck out of their zone, Logan Stanley received a pass from Kyle Connor, fired it and Vilardi redirected the puck to find the back of the net. Alec Martinez struck his first as a Hawk with just seconds remaining in the first to take back the lead for the Chicago Blackhawks when Ilya Mikheyev passed the puck across to Martinez from the right point, and Martinez sent a wrister over Connor Hellebuyck’s left shoulder after skating into the left face-off circle.
Nino Niederreiter tied it back up to 2-2 late in the second frame when he lifted his 10th goal of the season over Arvid Soderblom’s right shoulder, skating along the goal line on the left side after he received the puck from Mason Appleton for a backhanded goal.
Scoring on the rebound of a shot by Kyle Connor with 9:42 left in regulation – Mark Scheifele put Winnipeg ahead 3-2 for his 14th of the season, and broke the 2-2 tie. Mason Appleton later struck Chicago’s empty net for the 4-2 final.
Jason Dickinson on what he takes from this loss, being under a new coach, and getting things going: “There was a lot of good flow, I felt. The guys were on the same page, but at the end of the day, I lose my matchup and we end up losing the game. That’s basically where it comes down to,” – “There’s two ways of looking at it. There’s one way where a new coach comes in, everybody plays freely, everybody just.. plays and things go great, and then there’s an adjustment period or there’s an adjustment right away where we have to try to change things. We have to adjust to new philosophies and new ideals that he holds deeply, and we have to honor those. So, maybe that’s the route we’re going to take. We’re going to adjust early and then we’re going to find our game.”
Notes:
– Before leaving the game due to an apparent injury at 10:46 of the first period – Petr Mrazek had made four saves. He fell awkwardly after making a save. …Arvid Soderblom took Mrazek’s place in net, making 21 saves on 24 shots for the Blackhawks.
– Anders Sorensen is the first Swedish-born head coach in NHL history.
– The Blackhawks had 14 shots on goal, this being the fewest amount on goal for them this season.
– Alec Martinez had left the game after taking a puck to the face at 1:15 of the third period from a shot by Adam Lowry. …According to Sorensen, Martinez is being evaluated and “might miss some time.”
– Mason Appleton recorded a goal and an assist, and Kyle Connor gathered a pair of assists.
– Connor Hellebuyck made a total of 12 saves for Winnipeg.
– The Jets are the first team to 20 wins this season.
– Josh Morrissey skated in his 610th game with the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers, and he passes Dustin Byfuglien for sole possession of second place among defensemen in franchise history, with the first being Toby Enstrom with 719.
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