Blackhawks survive rocky start, hold off Hurricanes, 2-1
The Carolina Hurricanes ended what has been a strong month of March with a loss that coach Rod Brind’Amour described as “weird” and “gross.”
The Canes were beaten 2-1 by the Chicago Blackhawks, who turned two early goals in the second period and 31 saves from rookie goalie Kevin Lankinen into a grinding victory Tuesday at the United Center.
The Canes (23-8-3) could have moved into first place in the Central Division after the Tampa Bay Lighting lost Tuesday for a third straight time in regulation. But the loss dropped Carolina (49 points) to third after the Florida Panthers won to tie the Lightning with 50 points. The Blackhawks (17-15-5), in fourth, kept pace with Nashville, which also won Tuesday.
“It was a weird game.” Brind’Amour said. “We didn’t generate any offense and we gave up two goals. it was that simple, in my opinion. We just handed them two.
“There really wasn’t much happening in that game. It was kind of a gross hockey game, to be honest with you. We didn’t fight hard enough to get Grade-A’s (scoring chances). It wasn’t like we gave up much but we didn’t do enough to win the game.”
The Canes dominated the first period but couldn’t score against Lankinen, only to have the Blackhawks score twice in barely first four minutes of the second. Dylan Strome scored 29 seconds into the period and Alex DeBrincat on a power play at 4:02 after a Patrick Kane steal in the Canes zone.
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Andrei Svechnikov’s tip of a Brady Skjei shot late in the second accounted for the Canes’ only goal. Canes defenseman Dougie Hamilton had his 14-game point streak, the longest in the NHL this season, come to an end.
The Canes had been behind just three times this season after 40 minutes before Tuesday. For the fourth time, they could not make a third-period comeback as the Blackhawks hunkered around Lankinen, looked to clog the neutral zone to stymie the Canes and blocked shots -- Chicago had 19 blocks in the game.
“They did a good job of making it a tough game on us,” Skjei said. “it was definitely a more controlled game then the previous ones.”
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, in his 13th game, took the loss for the Canes, who had center Vincent Trocheck return to the lineup after missing eight game with an upper-body injury.
Trocheck, called the Canes’ best player Tuesday by Brind’Amour, had an assist on the Svechnikov goal.
“I felt pretty good from the start,” Trocheck said. “I just needed to get a few hits and feel the game a little bit.”
Lankinen might have won the game in the first period, when the rookie stopped 13 shots as the Canes stayed on the attack. Strome then beat Nedeljkovic with a shortside shot on the first shift of the second.
DeBrincat’s goal came after Patrick Kane stole the puck from defenseman Brett Pesce, who was trying to clear the zone, and fed DeBrincat for a tap-in and his 19th of the season.
“We gave them two right away to start the second, said, ‘Here you go, here’s two goals,’” Brind’Amour said. “Very, very frustrating. It’s one thing to make them earn it but we said ‘here you go.’ It’s not like we played a poor game. We just had a couple of hiccups there that cost us.”
The Canes had a 32-16 edge in shots and 23-11 advantage in scoring chances but those metrics meant little by game’s end. Carolina finished the month of March 10-2-2 and will begin April with another game at Chicago on Thursday.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 7:04 PM.
