The Chicago Blackhawks took on the Dallas Stars at the United Center on Thursday night. This New Year’s Day matchup was the second between these two teams in less than a week.
Last Saturday, the Blackhawks defeated the Stars in Dallas via the shootout. Despite having the second-best record in the NHL entering play on Thursday, the Stars haven’t won a game since December 21st, when they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs at home 5-1.
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In Chicago’s most recent game, a shootout loss to the New York Islanders, Artyom Levshunov was brilliant. He defended well, used his speed to create chances, hit a couple of posts, and had an assist. He followed that up with a strong game against the Stars on Thursday.
Levshunov opened the scoring. After a net-mouth scramble in front of Jake Oettinger, the puck made it to Levshunov a bit farther away from the net, and he picked a corner.
Just under three minutes later, Mikko Rantanen made a great move to beat Spencer Knight and tie the game. From there, the Blackhawks started to take over.
At the end of the first period, Nils Lundkvist took a two minute minor penalty for cross checking Oliver Moore. This promised the Hawks a power play with a clean sheet of ice to open the second.
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Just 13 seconds into the middle frame, the Blackhawks took advantage of this man-advantage. A nice play by Tyler Bertuzzi and Andre Burakovsky allowed Teuvo Teravainen to find the puck wide open in front of the net. He didn’t miss with his shot.
With 9:14 gone in the second, Ilya Mikheyev scored as nice a goal as you’ll see in the NHL this season. This put the Blackhawks up 3-1, which is a score that held into the third.
At the 3:58 mark of the third, Mikheyev scored his second of the game to make it 4-1. It wasn’t as impressive as the first goal he scored, but it counts just the same. When Jake Oettinger watches the replay of that one, he won’t love it.
Later in the period, with under five minutes remaining in regulation time, the Stars scored one with Oettinger on the bench for the extra attacker. Jason Robertson scored to cut the deficit to two.
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With the goalie pulled again, Ilya Mikheyev attempted to have his first career hat trick and seal the game from his own blue line, but it hit the inside of the post. The Stars then came down the ice and scored again to make it 4-3 with 17 seconds remaining. Matt Duchene took a perfect pass from Wyatt Johnston and beat Spencer Knight.
The Blackhawks were able to hang on and win 4-3 from there. The game ended up being much closer in the end, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this was Chicago’s best game since Connor Bedard went down with an injury.
Chicago is now 2-1-1 since the holiday break. Both of the wins are against Dallas, who is one of the best teams that they will play all year long. Whether it’s Artyom Levshunov’s emergence, Ilya Mikheyev getting hot, or the other young players making a difference, things seem to be turning back in the right direction again as they were earlier in the season.
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What’s Next For The Blackhawks?
The Blackhawks are back in action on Saturday night. They will hit the road for one game as they will face the Washington Capitals in the nation’s capital.
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