Looking to break out of their recent doldrums, the Blackhawks entertained longtime rival St. Louis last night at the UC. The Blues were scuffling for every last point as they entered action 3 points out of the playoffs in the West.
The Hawks’ lines and pairings were:
Saad-Toews-Kane
Highmore-Schmaltz-Hinostroza
DeBrincat-Anisimov-Jurco
Sharp-Kampf-Hayden
Keith-Rutta
Gustafsson-Seabrook
Oesterle-Murphy
Joel Quenneville went with the (relatively) hot hand in net, starting JF Berube over Anton Forsberg.
First period.
The Hawks came out with some jump, gaining the early edge in shots. Chicago was on a power play when Alex DeBrincat beat Jake Allen through a John Hayden screen at 13:07. The goal was the 23rd of a nice rookie season for DeBrincat. 1-0 Chicago.
It wasn’t long before ADB would find the twine again, this time with the Hawks (in a bit of a turnabout versus recent games) all over the opponents’ goalie. In a goalmouth scramble with Artem Anisimov and Tomas Jurco, DeBrincat tapped home a loose puck for his 24th at 19:08. 2-0 Hawks and that was how the period would end. Shots were 13-8 for the Hawks in a solid period.
Second period.
After Jordan Oesterle took a hooking penalty, the Blues and Alex Steen tied the game on the power play at 17:58. The goal came off a sneaky redirect of a point shot that went over Berube’s left shoulder.
Not long afterward, Hawk forward Matthew Highmore got his head bashed into the boards, and had to leave the game with blood flowing from his mouth, on a Questionable/borderline dirty play by Blues’ forward Brayden Schenn.
Making matters worse, Duncan Keith soon took a high sticking penalty, which the Blues’ Vince Dunn capitalized on at 5:14, blasting a slapshot cleanly past an unscreened Berube. 2-2, just like that.
At 1:57 of the period, disaster loomed when Jaden Schwartz put a mild shot on Berube that went through his pads for what appeared to be a very soft goal. Under review, the goal was overturned, and clearly Berube was bailed out by Oesterle who was able to prevent the puck from crossing the line—or at least he did so according to a highly debatable review. The Hawks got lucky, and Berube especially so.
One Hawk who just never quits is Vince Hinostroza—who continues to remind me of a circa 2009 Darren Helm. With about :10 left in the period, Hinostroza used his speed to chase down a puck deep in the Blues end, outworked a player twice his size in Colton Parayko, and set up David Kampf who had gone to the front of the net.
So, with one tick left on the clock, it was 3-2 Chicago, when it could have been quite different. And that’s where the period ended.
Third period.
The teams traded some chances early on, with neither posing a real threat for several minutes. Around the middle of the period, the pace picked up and both teams mounted some pressure. You could sense some of the Blues’ desperation and the Hawks seemed to rise to the challenge.
But you could almost predict this: at 4:36, Berube lost track of a puck behind the net, that eventually popped out to Vladimir Sobotka and the game was tied at 3.
However, tonight would mark DeBrincat’s third hat trick of the year—ADB finished a nice feed from Anisimov at 16:47, blasting a puck into a wide open side. 4-3 Hawks, and that was not . . . how it ended.
Because, St. Louis pulled Allen—and got a point shot past a largely screened Berube to tie it at 4 at 1:22.
Overtime
Jonathan Toews had Allen beaten and hit the crossbar at 2:38. Both teams traded chances on ensuring rushes, before the Blues won the game on a Patrik Berglund slapper from 50 feet that beat an unscreened Berube—who clearly has difficulty tracking pucks.
The good.
The Hawks had strong push up the ice from the opening horn. They came to play.
The effort, energy and fearlessness of Hinostroza and Hayden are something all Hawk fans should look forward to in 2018-19. They’re the kinds of player who will not likely put up big offensive numbers per se— they will just help their team win hockey games.
The Jurco-Anisimov-Debrincat line was really good all night (yes, even Jurco was ok). DeBrincat can definitely finish his chances.
The bad.
Berube is the goalie du jour . . .
The ugly.
… sort of like week old chili with ptomaine can be the soup du jour.
Summary.
The effort was there all night which was really good to see—the Hawks had a bit more puck luck and few less bonehead plays in this one than they did on Saturday in Buffalo. Share your thoughts on the comment thread below.
Follow: @jaeckel