It took the Blackhawks officially 17:13 to put a shot on net. They had the game’s first power play, but gave up a short-handed goal to Seth Jarvis (again) to trail by one before they got that shot on net. Not exactly an inspiring start. But the Hawks were doing a decent enough job of keeping pucks away from their own net and their second shot on net went in to tie the game inside the final two minutes of the opening period.
A rush by the Blackhawks that didn’t yield a shot turned into a turnover that went the other way and found the back of the net — Mikko Rantanen’s first goal for Carolina. The Canes then scored 67 seconds later when a shot hit the crossbar and the rebound found Jaccob Slavin. Philipp Kurashev got caught watching the rebound as it went in and the Hawks were suddenly chasing two.
The Blackhawks weren’t bad in the second period but they were down a couple. They started the third period with really good energy and it started to turn into chances against a Canes team that dressed only 17 skaters. They were able to get within one early in the third period. A penalty on Lukas Reichel late in the third was far from ideal. The Hawks were able to kill the penalty and got a nice short-handed chance from Landon Slaggert. Nick Foligno took penalty to prevent an empty net goal inside the final minutes and Carolina then went short-handed with ten seconds left but the Blackhawks couldn’t come all the way back.
Star 1: Connor Bedard
Bedard won 3 of 4 faceoffs in the first period and had one of the Blackhawks’ three shots on goal. He had really good juice in the second period and was playing noticeably physical. Bedard was at 15:52 thru two periods — three minutes more than any other forward. He got a nice lead pass for a breakaway and scored his 15th of the season to get the Blackhawks within one in the third period. He skated 23:37.
#Blackhawks within one
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) January 31, 2025
🚨 Connor Bedard
🍎 Seth Jones
pic.twitter.com/EEbudw3mgL
Star 2: Ilya Mikheyev
The Blackhawks had absolutely zero offense going in the first period until Mikheyev got a nice pass and buried the shot to get Chicago on the board late in the period. We’ve talked about how much late goals can impact momentum in a game. The Hawks needed this one desperately.
#Blackhawks are on the board
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) January 31, 2025
🚨 Ilya Mikheyev
🍎 Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson
pic.twitter.com/TRcRXjwoIX
Star 3: Nolan Allan
The Blackhawks weren’t playing much physical hockey thru 20 minutes, but Allan came out with a couple big hits early in the second period. He’s been physical and not intimidated in most of the games he’s played this year and he was noticeable on the ice nearly every shift. He had a team-high four hits thru two periods (no other Blackhawks skater had more than two).
Nice hit by Nolan Allan on Svechnikov pic.twitter.com/EEacbM4uVu
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 31, 2025
Key Takeaways
- No revenge game tonight for Taylor Hall. He was a late scratch because of illness. Because he and Sebastian Aho were both under the weather, the Canes only dressed 17 skaters.
- Seth Jones made a really nice pass to Bedard to spring him for the goal. He remains on fire offensively; he’s got 10 points in 7 games now. Jones was actively blocking shots — led the team with five blocks — and deflecting passes all night as well.
- Arvid Söderblom was really good again tonight. He made some big saves early in the third period, including a couple right before Bedard’s goal. He might want the second goal back but he didn’t get a lot of offensive support in the first half of the game.
- Jason Dickinson led the team in hits (two) and blocked shots (two) and had an assist in the first period. He finished the night with three hits and three blocked shots.
- Frank Nazar had a tough night. He deferred way too much in the first two periods; he should have shot the puck after getting a nice pass from Jones (who continued to fly down the middle of the ice) but it turned into the turnover that became Carolina’s second goal. He lost an edge more times than you would like, too.
- Slaggert kept attacking pucks and found himself getting bumped up to the top line with Bedard during the second period. Another excellent performance from Slaggert.