The Chicago Blackhawks came into Wednesday's game against the Colorado Avalanche 1-9-0 in their last 10 games. Since the trade deadline, they have been much more worried about developing young players than winning hockey games.
Most of their roster is 25 years old or younger. They have been playing an exciting brand of hockey lately that revolves around speed and skill, but it hasn't led to winning. That is expected in the early stages of these guys playing together.
Chicago had a two-goal lead over the Avalanche thanks to goals scored by Ilya Mikheyev and Connor Murphy. The Blackhawks held that lead through the second period. At that point, they had their sights on winning the season series over this elite Avalanche team.
Cale Makar planted the seed of doubt by scoring his 29th of the season at 9:17 of the third period. No defenseman in the NHL has scored 30 goals since Mike Green did it in 2008-09 with the Washington Capitals, so Makar is closing in on history.
It wasn't until 19:49 of the final frame that the Avalanche tied things up. Martin Necas deflected a shot taken by Cale Makar past Spencer Knight. Brock Nelson also tipped it along the way. There was nothing Knight could do other than watch the Avalanche celebrate with 11 seconds left in regulation.
Despite some great chances at both ends of the ice, overtime didn't do anything for either team as a shootout was required. In the first round, neither Ryan Donato nor Brock Nelson scored. In the second round, Nathan MacKinnon scored but Connor Bedard did not.
Both Teuvo Teravainen and Arturri Lehkonen scored in the third round, which gave the Avalanche the comeback victory over the Blackhawks. Chicago played hard, but they were unable to close it out despite being 11 seconds away from a series win. Instead, they will settle for 2-1-1 against Colorado in 2024-25.
Spencer Knight played very well for the Blackhawks as he made 29 saves on 31 shots. It took a double deflection for Colorado to get it tied late. After some up-and-down games since being acquired by Chicago, Knight was brilliant in this one.
Mikheyev's goal was scored shorthanded for Chicago, but they went a lousy 0/3 on the power play. None of their attempts looked particularly good either. Luckily, Colorado's lethal man-advantage went 0/4, or this game could have been ugly.
The speed at which this Blackhawks team plays keeps them in games against good teams, but it is going to take some time for the group to gel enough to win consistently at this level.
Next up for the Hawks is a road tilt in the DC against the Washington Capitals. That game against Alexander Ovechkin's team will surely have tons of eyeballs on it as he is closing in on Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal mark.
Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.
