NEWSLETTER
It was a trap game with the Blackhawks coming in as winners of their last four in-a-row and the Kraken as losers of their last nine straight.
Chicago blew a 1-0 and 2-1 lead in regulation, barely held on in overtime, and ultimately couldn’t get it done in the shootout, losing to the Kraken 3-2.
With the loss, the Blackhawks record moves to 15-18-6 overall (and 14-9-4 under interim head coach Derek King).
After a slow start in the first periods, a sleepy period at 4:00 p.m. CT on a Monday in January, the Blackhawks broke the scoreless tie in the second with an incredible connection from Erik Gustafsson to Dominik Kubalík.
Kubalík upping his trade value or clicking at the right time for a playoff push? You tell me…#Blackhawks #CHIvsSEA pic.twitter.com/Wvexe1Rmf8
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) January 17, 2022
Kubalík netted his third goal in his last three games and his ninth of the season. Not long after that in the same period, while on the powerplay, the Blackhawks got their lead back with Brandon Hagel scoring his tenth goal of the season.
Hagel’s 10th of the season gives the #Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at the 2nd intermission!
Kane extends his point-streak to 8 games with the secondary assist #CHIvsSEA pic.twitter.com/3thmsRmZUj— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) January 17, 2022
Hagel is now the second Blackhawks player to reach double-digits in goals this season, behind Alex DeBrincat’s team-leading 23 goals.
On the 2-1 powerplay goal, Patrick Kane registered a secondary assist and extended his season-long point-streak to eight games. Chicago would hold the 2-1 lead into the third period, where Chicago had a 9-1-1 record with a lead at the second intermission coming into today’s game.
The third period would be all Seattle as a number of high-quality chances nearly blew the entire game for Chicago. While the Kraken would get the equalizing goal, Marc-André Fleury came up with some of his best saves of the year in the period. He stopped Jared McCann once with an insane glove save…
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 pic.twitter.com/jRQzLb4JK8
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) January 18, 2022
And again on a penalty shot late in the period to keep the game tied. Fleury made 14 saves on 15 shots in the third period alone. It was an effort that earned the Blackhawks at least a point as the game would head to overtime tied at 2-2. In the extra period of hockey, the Blackhawks leaned on Fleury almost entirely to save their butts. The Kraken had numerous high-quality chances to end the game, but Fleury and the goalposts came up huge to send it to the shootout.
Fleury and the Blackhawks survive the end of overtime pic.twitter.com/YC9NlITJo0
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) January 18, 2022
In the end, Fleury made 35 saves on 37 shots in regulation and overtime and then stopped one of three in the shootout. He was making his seventh-straight start for the Blackhawks and with the shootout loss, his record over those seven games moves to 4-1-2. Hard to ask him for much more than he gave the Blackhawks tonight.
The Blackhawks want to “Believe” they can get back into the postseason chase. If they really want to make us believe with them, they cannot be dropping points to the few teams that are below them in the standings and wasting an effort like they had tonight from Fleury.
With tomorrow’s schedule game in Edmonton already postponed, the Blackhawks are next in action on Friday and Saturday with a home-and-home series with the Minnesota Wild starting in Chicago.
Find the full box score here.
