The Chicago Blackhawks needed a win like Sunday’s 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the United Center.
Correction: The young Hawks needed a win like this.
The Hawks made mistakes, but small ones.
They engaged in a bit of a track meet with the Pens, but nothing too risky in what had been a scoreless stalemate through the better part of two periods.
They played bend-but-don’t-break hockey — until they could break through.
That breakthrough came on a shorthanded goal by Frank Nazar with 65 seconds left in the second period.
Nazar had teased many scoring chances this season and delivered when the Hawks needed it most.
Buoyed by that confidence-booster, the Hawks swarmed the Penguins in the third period and padded their lead midway through on Ilya Mikheyev’s 19th goal.
Connor Bedard and Sam Rinzel assisted, with Rinzel earning his first NHL point.
Rickard Rakell scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal on the power play, but Mikheyev reached the 20-goal plateau for just the second time in his six-year career on the empty netter.
“There (were) a lot of just 50-50 shifts going on, but for us, as a group, that’s also a positive: learning how to play those games,” Hawks interim coach Anders Sörensen said. “We’ve had a tendency to open things up sometimes. So that was good.”
The win snapped a five-game skid.
“Everyone played pretty selfless, and then we (battened) down the hatches,” said Hawks goalie Spencer Knight.
“Obviously they have a good power play and they executed on that one in the third, but that’s the thing: We just stuck with it, no one pouted (and) everyone stuck to the script and battled.”
Here are six takeaways.
1. For once, Nazar doesn’t come up short while short-handed.
Leading up to the Pens game, the speedy rookie had had five shots on goal on the penalty kill, indicative of his talent for breakaways.
But he had trouble finding a way to fool a goalie — until Sunday.
He broke out on a two-on-one with Teuvo Teräväinen and beat Alex Nedeljkovic pretty handily.
“I know there’s been a lot of talk about his scoring chances and breakaways, so good for him,” Sörensen said. “That was the difference. After that we had some good energy.”
Mikheyev has come to expect such performances from Nazar.
“You see during the season how he’s grown up,” the wing said. “Frank’s a smart guy and he’s using his power skating and everything.”
2. Mikheyev has really turned it on in the final stretch.
With two goals on Sunday, he has recorded five goals and three assists in the last eight games.
He knows when to stay home defensively and when to take off, and with his speed (and some better passing than usual by the Hawks on Sunday), he consistently gets ahead of the pack.
“He’s awesome,” Knight said. “Super great guy. Great speed, smart player, and on the PK.”
3. The Hawks didn’t “crack” in the third period.
It’s usually a disaster.
That’s not hyperbole. Heading into Sunday, they had scored the fewest goals in the league (65) and given up the most (103).
But they had a 2-1 advantage to secure the win, when many times they’ve blown leads.
“I want to say maybe the last three weeks, month maybe, we’ve played good,” Mikheyev said. “Not (always a) win, but we have more advantage during each game and we sometimes crack in the third period.
“It takes time to learn for young guys and for everybody to be patient and maybe sometimes play more simple.”
4. Knight’s not grousing about the missed shutout.
Had ...
