The Chicago Blackhawks have an embarrassing history against the Minnesota Wild, but they nearly outdid themselves Sunday at the United Center.
They put up one shot on goal in the first period, and at one moment in the second period the Wild had as many goals on the boards and the Hawks had shots: three.
But then the Hawks came alive in the third period.
Seth Jones picked up where he left off after missing Friday’s Tampa Bay game with an illness.
The Hawks defenseman ripped a power-play goal from the slot, his second marker in the last three games and fifth straight game with a point.
It came off Connor Bedard’s seventh assist this month, to go along with three goals.
Four minutes and 20 seconds later, Frank Nazar seized on an Ethan Del Mastro rebound and wristed it in to pull the Hawks within one goal.
Nazar persevered through modest returns on his first 16 games, but he’s now riding a four-game point streak, including goals in back-to-back games.
But that’s where the rally ended.
The Hawks couldn’t find the tying goal despite two more power plays. And Marcus Foligno ended the threat with an empty-netter with 1 minute, 42 seconds left.
With the 4-2 loss in the series finale, the Hawks’ all-time record against their Central Division rival dropped to 34-44-1-13.
In fact, the Wild extended their point streak against the Hawks to 16 games (15-0-1), dating to Feb. 4, 2020, according to NHL Stats. Only the Boston Bruins have a run as long currently against one opponent: 15-0-1 versus the Montreal Canadiens.
Simply put, the Wild own the Hawks.
Much in the way Aaron Rodgers owned a box suite in the Bears psyche when he was with the Green Bay Packers.
“It’s just another game where we didn’t come out good enough,” Tyler Bertuzzi said. “We made a late push, but it’s hard in this league to come back from three goals, especially in the third period.
“Obviously we made the push, but it wasn’t good enough.”
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. You only get one shot …
NHL Stats and Information keeps shot-by-period data dating back to the 1965-66 season. In that time, there have been 32 instances in which the Hawks have been held to one shot on goal in a regulation period (excluding overtime).
And for the first time, it happened in consecutive periods to the Hawks: Friday’s third period against the Tampa Bay Lightning (17-1) and Sunday’s first period against the Wild (11-1).
The futility against the Wild was impressive: eight misses and nine blocked shots in one frame.
Interim coach Anders Sorensen said, “For whatever reason, they were on top of us and we weren’t ready to battle through some of that. We spent too much time in our own zone and when we had opportunities to shoot we missed the net or it got blocked.”
Del Mastro added, “I think we came out a little flat; tough start.”
The lone shot on goal came from Philipp Kurashev, with 8 minutes, 20 seconds left in the frame. Incidentally, in the game against Tampa Bay, it was a Bedard wrist shot.
Getting locked down when an opponent tries to rally in a third period? That’s understandable.
Following that up effort by firing on almost no cylinders to start the next game? That’s baffling.
Bertuzzi said, “We definitely need to up our shot volume, get more guys to the net, kind of create chances off shots from the point, shots from the side.
“We’ve got to do a way better job.”
2. Call it the ‘Foligno Flop.’
Or maybe Nick “Flop-ino” is better?
It might’ve been funny if it wasn’t so costly.
After Foligno was holding against Kirill Kaprizov, he mockingly imitated Kaprizov by contorting himself and failing his arms to suggest that Wild forward was embellishing to get a “star call” (see: Patrick Mahomes) from the referees.
But Foligno compounded the disadvantage for the Hawks by drawing an unsportsmanlike penalty. The Wild capitalized on the four minutes of power play with a goal by Joel Eriksson Ek.
A third Wild goal, before the Hawks went on a two-goal rally? You do the math.
That’s a stunning loss of discipline by a team captain who, just last game, preached about “how clean we have to play. We have to be so smart in our understanding and our decision making.”
That play might’ve been funny, but it wasn’t smart.
And Sorensen wasn’t laughing either.
“Got to be better there, right?” he said.
3. The young players continued to make strides.
Bedard reached 30 assists on Jones’ goal.
Del Mastro recorded his first NHL point assisting on Nazar’s goal.
“Some good moments obviously on the goal there,” Sorensen said. “I thought he battled, got stuck a couple of times in the D-zone, maybe trying to do a little bit too much.”
Del Mastro said, “Personal accolades kind of don’t mean as much when you’re when you’re losing, but obviously nice to get a point.”
Landon Slaggert was the latest call-up from Rockford Sunday, and it seems this growing collection of IceHog transplants (Del Mastro, Nazar, Nolan Allan, etc.) are creating something of a comfort zone.
“I was talking about that with Panger (TV analyst Darren Pang) earlier. A lot more familiar faces with the guys that came up from Rockford, guys I’ve seen in the last couple years, kind of building relationships,” Del Mastro said.
“They’re playing good,” Bertuzzi said. “They’re playing fast. It’s not easy to come up and play really good hockey and they have been. They look like they belong.”