With both the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues each playing their final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, one thing became clear: There would be no breaks, asked or given.
The seesaw battle featured a five-goal third period that included three ties, a missed chance at an overtime buzzer-beater by Seth Jones and a 10-round shootout duel between Hawks goalie Arvid Söderblom and Blues counterpart Jordan Binnington.
Radek Faksa’s toe-drag goal — and Tyler Bertuzzi’s missed follow-up — finally settled the stalemate to give the Blues a 6-5 win Saturday at Enterprise Center.
This turned out to be the real classic between these rivals, not that fiasco of a Winter Classic that was the Hawks’ 6-2 loss on New Year’s Eve at Wrigley Field.
“We weren’t happy with that, right?” Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said before the game. “We kind of owe these guys a little bit.”
As scintillating and competitive as the game was, the bottom line remained the same for the Hawks: a fourth straight loss to the Blues.
Still, there were positives.
Connor Bedard’s first-period assist extended his point streak three games, and the center has had a point in all but three games since Dec. 21.
Ilya Mikheyev had three points in the third period, including a goal that looked like he was shot out of a cannon to give the Hawks a 5-4 lead.
The Hawks put up a total of 11 goals in their last two games before the break, their most of any two-game span this season.
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
1. Ryan Donato stays on a roll.
Donato pushed his team lead to 19 goals and extended his goal and point streaks to three and four games, respectively. He has four goals and four assists in the last four games.
After a lot of offseason fine-tuning, he has taken his game to another level. He already eclipsed his previous career high of 16 goals (in 74 games for the Seattle Kraken in 2021-22), and he’s on pace for 28.
Donato continues to make a case to be a part of the Hawks’ future.
2. Bedard’s line keeps chugging.
Donato and Landon Slaggert flank him, and how quickly the trio has achieved consistent chemistry is eye-opening. The top line produced a goal for a third straight game (Donato’s).
However, they got outchanced 9-4 in five-on-five and gave up a goal (Cam Fowler’s) for the first time.
It was bound to happen eventually, but that has been a distinguishing factor from past Bedard lines, some of which gave away more goals than they scored.
3. Söderblom got past his Achilles’ heel (sort of).
Over the past three seasons, skaters couldn’t miss against the Hawks goalie in shootouts. He failed to stop any of the first nine shots he faced in his career (three each season).
But Söderblom has experienced an overall evolution this season, and apparently that has extended to shootouts.
He and Binnington both gave up goals in the second round, but then they dragged out their duel to a 10th round, when Faksa finally fooled Söderblom for the winner.
4. Teuvo Teräväinen heads to 4 Nations on a high note.
The Finn will be the only Hawks player participating in next week’s international tournament between Finland, Sweden, Canada and the United States.
He quietly has been on a tear, recording two points in each of his last three games before the break, including a goal and an assist in the third period Saturday.
It’s Teräväinen’s second time this season with a multipoint stretch of at least three games, according to NHL Stats, and the previous Hawk to do that was Alex DeBrincat in 2021-22.
