Blackhawks Locker Room: Players talk ‘dialed in Mrazek,’ more offensive push

CHICAGO — It was not perfect, but the Chicago Blackhawks managed to secure the win on Sunday (something the Bears couldn’t do) beating the Minnesota Wild 2-1 at home.

Despite relinquishing a late goal, the Hawks didn’t quit scoring the game winner in overtime courtesy of Philipp Kurashev. The Blackhawks won despite getting outshot 33-22, with many of the Wild’s shots coming in the third period. Chicago did manage to win the faceoff game tonight winning 51.9 percent of the draws, a much needed improvement.

After the win, Kurashev, who played 17 minutes tonight, spoke of the team’s performance.

“Obviously we don’t want to give up that late goal,” Kurashev said, “but we found a way to win, that’s a big part.”

The Blackhawks played a great 40 minutes of hockey, shutting down one of the best teams in the NHL right now in Minnesota. The Wild entered tonight’s game 10-2-2 having scored five goals in each of their last two games.

The Hawks held them to just 14 shots on goal in the first two periods, but fell a part in the third where the Wild would drastically outshot the Hawks keeping the puck down in the offensive zone for much of the period.

“I think it has been tough for us all year to play a full 60 minutes,” Kurashev said postgame. “We have to find a way to, even if the game is tied, stay in it and not let teams back in it. We got away with it today but we gotta learn from it.”

The Hawks did get away with one tonight, in large part thanks to the play of Petr Mrazek. Mrazek stopped 32 of 33 shots tonight, posting a .970 save percentage. The Hawks easily could have lost 3-1 or 5-1 in the third if it wasn’t for Mrazek, and the post a few times. He was just one save off of earning his first shut out of the season.

“He was unbelievable,” Kurashev said of Mrazek. “He is the reason why we were still in the game, we have to be better than that for him, but I’m glad we got the win.”

Defenseman Alex Vlasic played 23:43 tonight, registering two takeaways, two blocked shots and one hit, but even he recognized the great play in the net after the win.

“He was unbelievable,” Vlasic said on Mrazek. “I feel like he’s been that way the whole year, last year as well.”

While the Blackhawks and Vlasic were happy to get the win, they recognized there is room for improvement — like the way the team played in the third, where Vlasic said the team “took their foot off the gas.”

“We got to do a better job, I think, in the third period,” Vlasic said. “When we get a lead, I think we talked about this before, where we just kind of back off a little bit and they start to pressure us really hard and we have breakdowns. And, yeah, Raz has always been there to back us up. We couldn’t do it without him, for sure.”

Head coach Luke Richardson also spoke of Mrazek’s performance tonight.

“He was really dialed in and definitely the best player on both teams tonight, for sure,” Richardson said. “I thought we played a really solid game but he was there all game when we needed him. The third period, they kind of turned it on and we stopped making plays and they had the puck too much and Petr was excellent and kept us in there right to the end.”

Giving up a game tying goal late in the third period might have been the nail in the coffin for some teams even last year’s Hawks would have struggled in that situation, but this Hawks team came back out pushing for offense, something Mrazek himself was partly happy to see.

“It was good to see, but I think we should play a little more offense, as well, when you’re up 1-0,” Mrazek said. “Because you know how this league is — one mistake and it’s in your net, and it’s a tie game. We just have to learn from those games and this period and move on.”

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