The Blackhawks fall to the Devils 2-1 in a shootout. New Jersey is now 8-0-2 in their last 10 home games against Chicago.
It was a slightly different team on the ice for the Blackhawks tonight. Steve Montador returned to the lineup after missing 22 games with a concussion, Marcus Kruger also returned after suffering an upper-body injury against Vancouver last Wednesday, and this team is still without their captain Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith, who was suspended 5 games earlier in the week for a head hit placed on Daniel Sedin.
The Blackhawks got off to a slow start in the first period, and the Devils took advantage. Petr Sykora cracked open the scoring late in the period on the power play to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead.
After a scoreless second period and several combined penalties killed by both teams, Brent Seabrook tied the game a little over midway through the third, firing a slap-shot at the point that snuck past a screened Martin Brodeur.
There were a couple of opportunities by both teams in overtime to finish the game, but neither were able to convert. 65 minutes wasn’t enough to find a winner sending the game to come down to a shootout.
Patrick Elias and Patrick Sharp exchanged goals in round 3 of the shootout, and in round 5, Andrew Shaw failed to match Travis Zajac’s goal sealing the victory for New Jersey.
Regardless of not picking up the victory tonight, Corey Crawford had a tremendous bounce back game from Nashville stopping 21 of 22 total shots. A sign that’s been really encouraging as of late is that Crawford’s positioning has noticeably been much better than it has been earlier in the year.
Nick Leddy and Brent Seabrook led the team in blocked shots tonight with 3.
Chicago outshot New Jersey 38-22 in the contest and outshot them 25-11 in the 2nd, 3rd, and OT periods.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The Blackhawks travel back to the United Center as they welcome the St. Louis Blues in town on Thursday night for the last meeting of the season; puck drop at 7:30pm CT!