Marc-Andre Fleury isn't the reason the Blackhawks lost. Not even close.
Yet again, Fleury was simply stellar between the pipes and has been ever since the team transitioned from Jeremy Colliton to Derek King as bench boss. As to be expected in his career, Fleury gives his team a chance to win every game. It's too bad he often doesn't get the goal support or the offensive generation to even manufacture those goals.
The Kraken dominated in the advanced metrics pertaining to shooting and scoring chances. Down 2-1 after two periods, Seattle scored the game-tying goal early in the 3rd and pushed the game to overtime where they held Chicago with only one shot on goal. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane not being automatic in the shootout didn't help.
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Blackhawks Game Summary
Starting Lineup
Hagel - Borgstrom - Kane
DeBrincat - Toews - Kubalik
Hardman - Lafferty - Kurashev
Khaira - Carpenter - Entwistle
de Haan - Murphy
C Jones - McCabe
Stillman - Gustafsson
Fleury
Lankinen
Scratches:
Slavin, Galvas
Abridged Boxscore
1st Goal (1-0): Kubalik (Gustafsson)
2nd Goal (1-1): Dunn (Sheahan, Larsson)
3rd Goal (2-1): Hagel (Kubalik, Kane) PP
4th Goal (2-2): Donato (unassisted)
Shootout (2-3): Donskoi
Kraken:
* Eberle (miss)
* Donato (goal)
* Donskoi (goal)
Blackhawks:
* Toews (miss)
* Kane (miss)
SOG For/Against: 27/37
PP: 1-for-5
PK: 3-for-3
Faceoffs Won: 51%
Scoring Recap
* On the 1st goal scored, Erik Gustafsson made a well-time dive to prevent a scoring chance then immediately popped up to connect with Dominik Kubalik on a stretch pass for the breakaway tally.
* On the 2nd goal scored, Brandon Hagel was at the right place at the right time as he snuck in from below the goal line to bury a rebound stemming from a Kubalik scoring attempt that Philipp Grubauer denied from in close.
* On the 1st goal allowed, the Kraken moved the puck swiftly around their offensive zone before getting it to the top of the key where Vince Dunn wired a shot that ricocheted off of Riley Stillman's pants and into the top left corner to deceive Fleury.
* On the 2nd goal allowed, Ryan Donato turnstiled Jake McCabe at center ice to go in on a 2-on-1 where Caleb Jones committed too much to him than the potential pass recipient; it didn't help that Jones' sliding on the ice impeded Fleury from making the save.
Game Notes
* Kubalik has been getting his chances so it's good that he's finalizing capitalizing on them of late with his 3rd goal in as many games.
* Sam Lafferty continued to show off his disruptive speed for both forechecking and creating his own scoring opportunities.
* Mike Hardman spent almost as much time in the penalty box (5:00 for fighting) than on the ice (5:14 total TOI).
* Calvin de Haan and Connor Murphy yet again put their bodies on the line with 4 more blocked shots apiece.
* In total, the Hawks blocked 21 shots and allowed 74 shot attempts with 37 finding their way to Fleury.
* The defense during overtime was horrendous as Fleury seemed to have to do it all himself and lean on his buddy the goal post in the closing seconds to force the shootout.
Highlights
Goal by Dominik Kubalik
Save by Marc-Andre Fleury
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IceHogs Game Summary
Starting Lineup
Altybarmakian - Reichel - Teply
Pirri - McLaughlin - Busdeker
Howarth - Gicewicz - Barratt
Pour - G Mitchell - Osipov
Phillips - I Mitchell
Kalynuk - Regula
Stanton - Beaudin
Soderblom
Delia
Abridged Boxscore
1st Goal (0-1): Noesen (Topatigh, Poturalski)
2nd Goal (1-1): Stanton (Teply, Reichel)
3rd Goal (2-1): Reichel (Altybarmakian, Teply)
4th Goal (2-2): Smith (Williams)
5th Goal (2-3): Poturalski (Noesen, Smith) PP
6th Goal (3-3): McLaughlin (Kalynuk, Regula)
7th Goal (3-4): Gust (Smith, Williams)
8th Goal (3-5): Noesen (Poturalski, Drury) PP
SOG For/Against: 18/45
PP: 0-for-3
PK: 4-for-6
Game Notes
* Lukas Reichel picked up a goal and an assist in his first game back with the Hogs after his cup of coffee with the Hawks.
* Centered by Reichel, the top line which has included Michal Teply (2 assists) and Andrei Altybarmakian (assist) remains on a hot streak.
* The knock on Evan Barratt and Teply has been their mediocre skating but don't let that fool you as they're surprisingly productive at both ends of the rink leveraging their other skills and strengths.
* Teply also isn't a perimeter player
as Scott Wheeler from the Athletic stated in his most recent prospect pool ranking for the Hawks; on the contrary, Teply will take pucks off the wall and drive to the net with regularity.
* Ian Mitchell has been proving to be the most defensively wired of the D prospects in Rockford while Isaak Phillips is becoming the most willing to carry the mail consistently and with speed.
* Nicolas Beaudin is pretty slow and lacks a sense of urgency unless someone is in his grill; he's also guilty of waving his stick at the puck carrier from a meter away as his primary form of defense.
Highlights
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