Check another box for Chicago Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen.
Six games into his tenure, he’s 3-3-0.
- The Hawks have a close, low-scoring win over the New York Rangers.
- They have a close, high-scoring win over the New York Islanders in which they were tied three times and survived.
- And on Tuesday night at the United Center, they had a rally, scoring three goals in the third period to beat the Washington Capitals 3-2.
It was just the second time this season the Hawks erased a deficit of two goals or more. The first was a 4-3 shootout win over the Los Angeles Kings on Nov. 2 in which they came back from two goals down.
Who needed a victory like this more, Sorensen or the Hawks?
For the Hawks, “we stuck with it,” Sorensen said. “We thought we played OK, still down 2-0 and had a lot of power plays there in the second. But just the mental part of it, sticking with it, was huge.”
For himself, it’s more evidence he can handle the challenges of the NHL.
“Just take it day by day,” he said. “I’m happy we’re doing well as a group. That’s the most important thing right now.”
The Hawks have had a lot of hard-luck losses, so they were due to be on the other end.
“We played good and I think we deserved today,” said Ilya Mikheyev, whose short-handed goal sparked the rally.
Ryan Donato capped the comeback with a gritty, game-winning goal with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left.
“It’s great because we’ve been in spots where we’ve been up a couple goals and end up losing,” Donato said, “so it feels good to be on the other side of things and knowing that whatever the score is, it could be a lot worse.
“(Goalie Arvid Söderblom) played a great game, but being down a couple goals and being able to battle back just goes to show we can come back in games like that.”
Here are six takeaways from the win.
1. Teuvo Teräväinen is on a heater.
He had a goal and two assists in Sunday’s 5-3 win against the Islanders, and he assisted on all three goals against the Capitals.
Teräväinen has been finding his stride again as a facilitator after struggling for stretches of the season.
“The biggest thing with him is skating,” Sorensen said. “When he’s involved and engaged and playing on the interior of the ice and supporting that way, you see some of the things he did today.
“That’s what we encourage with him and maybe that was lacking a bit for a while there. Seems he definitely found that rhythm again.”
Teräväinen’s line with Jason Dickinson and Mikheyev had a good night, and Sorensen isn’t looking to break up obvious chemistry between Mikheyev and Teräväinen.
“They’ve been dynamite together, two games now,” he said.
2. Ryan Donato did it again.
As much as you can credit Teräväinen for the last two wins, Donato was Mr. Clutch at the end of both games.
He fed Connor Bedard from below the goal line on Bedard’s game-winner against the Islanders.
Against the Capitals, Donato did the dirty work himself, muscling his way to the net for the game-winner.
“He seems to have a knack for those moments, and that’s good to see,” Sorensen said.
Donato extended his team lead to 11 goals, but don’t expect that to impress his biggest critic.
He said his father — Harvard coach and former longtime Boston Bruin Ted Donato — attended Tuesday’s game.
“I’m sure he’ll talk about something else that I did wrong,” Donato said with a laugh. “I think he’ll give me a pat on the back but then also start to talk about other things that I can do better.
“Actually, I’d rather not have it any other way, where he can tell me the truth about my game.”
3. Look for even more offense from defensemen.
TJ Brodie scored the tying goal to give him two on the season, and both have come in the last week.
“Big goal for us, that was huge,” Sorensen said.
The Hawks blue-liners under Sorensen already have matched their goal total under former coach Luke Richardson — and Seth Jones hasn’t returned.
Starting with Sorensen’s first game on Dec. 7, Hawks defensemen have five goals and seven assists in six games, a two-point average. In 26 games under Richardson, they produced five goals and 41 assists (1.8 points per game).
For the season, Hawks defensemen account for 35.8% of the team’s assists, third-highest in the NHL.
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4. The penalty kill keeps humming.
The Hawks might not stand a chance without the PK. In their 11 wins, the penalty kill has held opponents to four goals in 36 opportunities.
The fourth-ranked unit (35.8%) shut down three more power plays by the Capitals, running its scoreless streak to 28 opportunities.
“Again, it’s more Deaner than me,” said Sorensen, referring to assistant coach Kevin Dean. “He’s done a really good job with those guys. He’s really clear in his communication, he analyzes (opponents’ tendencies) and the guys know where the threats are coming from.
“Also our habits have been really good on the PK, breaking up a lot of things with sticks, posture’s really good. There have been a lot of good things.”
5. The goal is not to expose the goalie.
Söderblom said he ultimately feels responsible for any pucks that go into his net, but even he had to admit some team breakdowns have been plaguing him lately.
“It was a few situations there that I could have played better, could’ve found pucks better,” he told the Tribune before Tuesday’s game, “but then there were some bad bounces too. That’s going to happen. It’s a long season, so the big thing is how you handle it, how you bounce back.”
The only bad bounces against the Capitals were self-inflicted.
Louis Crevier, the last line of defense against a Caps counterattack, tried to settle the puck as it drifted toward him, but he got stripped by Pierre-Luc Dubois near the Hawks blue line. Dubois blew by him and made easy pickings of Söderblom for the opening goal.
“I thought he was good after that,” Sorensen said of Crevier. “It was a tough puck for him, it got stuck in his feet. I’m not 6-6, so I don’t know how to handle those situations, but when you get stuck like that in your feet, it’s probably a long way to look.”
Later in the first period, Andrew Mangiapane undressed Brodie on a stick move and toe-dragged past him to beat Söderblom again.
Sorensen said Mangiapane created a tough gap for Brodie.
“He didn’t have great control of the situation,” Sorensen said. “But you have to move on, right?”
6. The power play resorted to bad habits.
The power play came up empty in four opportunities, three in the second period.
The Hawks mustered just four shots on goal in the four chances. They danced around the outside looking to pick lanes instead of shooting or driving on the net.
“We got stuck on the perimeter looking for the perfect play,” Sorensen said. “Sometimes when you have more of an attack mentality … it’s tough for a PK when you start whistling some things around their ear a little bit and you recover some pucks and maybe find some broken plays at times.
“We can be better there.”
