Ilya Mikheyev Nets a Pair as Blackhawks Officially Eliminate Penguins From Playoffs

It’s no secret that general manager Kyle Davidson’s vision for the Chicago Blackhawks’ future is to be the fastest team in the NHL. Over the past month, the Blackhawks have become a much younger and faster team, and they used that newly-found speed advantage to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 on Sunday.

After a scoreless first period, the Penguins thought they had drawn first blood midway through the second period, but the goal was waived off because Blake Lizotte had knocked it in with a high stick. Moments after Ilya Mikheyev and Nick Foligno nearly connected on the penalty kill, Frank Nazar put the Blackhawks up 1-0 with his first career shorthanded goal. He used to get the puck out of the zone, then received a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and beat Alex Nedeljkovic one-on-one.

The Blackhawks speed created their second goal midway through the third period. Connor Bedard made a nice feed across the neutral zone to Mikheyev, who blew right past Connor Timmons and scored his 19th goal of the season. Sam Rinzel recorded the secondary assist for his first point in the NHL.

Rickard Rakell made things interesting with a power-play goal with just over five minutes left to play, spoiling Spencer Knight’s bid for a shutout. Mikheyev, who was named the game’s First Star, sealed the victory with an empty-net goal in the final minute of play.

Learning How to Win

We’ve discussed the importance of this young team learning how to close out games. This was the third straight contest in which they took the lead into the third period. But instead of playing on their heels and losing, they had their best frame of the night and were rewarded with two points.

The Blackhawks outshot the Penguins 20-15 in the final frame while holding a 10-7 advantage in scoring chances and a 7-5 lead in high-danger scoring chances. That’s how you close out a game!

‘‘The last three weeks, maybe a month, we’ve played good,’’ Mikheyev said. “Not always win, but we have more advantage during each game and sometimes crack in the third period. It takes time to learn for young guys and for everybody to be patient and maybe play more simple.’’

Interim head coach Anders Sorensen was satisfied after the win. During his postgame press conference, he sounded like a proud father. All those weeks of pounding home a message finally paid off with the results this group has been working so hard to achieve.

“As a group, that’s also a positive, learning how to play those games,” he said. “We’ve had a tendency to open things up sometimes. We were playing more on the front of our foot. We were encouraging guys to be more on the forecheck, reminding them that they played last night: ‘Let’s stay on them.’’’

Frank Nazar Buries His Chance

If you only looked at Nazar’s stats without watching any of the games, you’d likely say he’s underachieving in the NHL. But that isn’t the case at all. He’s been the Blackhawks’ best player more times than not over the past few weeks. He’s been creating a ton of chances but hasn’t been able to finish.

As The Athletic’s Scott Powers pointed out, Nazar had 21 individual scoring chances and 10 high-danger scoring chances at 5v5 in the eight games leading up to Sunday’s contest but only scored twice. He produced three more 5v5 scoring chances against the Penguins and buried the shorthanded goal to open the scoring.

Nazar now has goals in back-to-back games, and the numbers are starting to pile up. I was never worried about his lack of finish. Nazar is exceptionally confident and even-keeled for a player of his age. While we’ve seen other young players vent their frustrations, Nazar never smashed a stick or slammed the bench door shut. He just went out for his next shift and continued to play his game, knowing the points would come. And now they are.

Third Line Plays an Effective Game

Philipp Kurashev made the most of his opportunity against the Washington Capitals on Friday. He scored his seventh goal of the season and produced two scoring chances in his 13 shifts. He was only in the game because Lukas Reichel missed a team meeting that morning. His line with Landon Slaggert and Oliver Moore appeared effective at times despite what the overall statistics revealed.

Moore picked up the first two points of his NHL career with a pair of assists. Slaggert had two helpers, as well, to snap a 13-game pointless streak.

“Their pace of play was noticeable,” Sorensen said before the game. “All three guys can play with some pace and make plays off the rush. That’s the biggest thing. So, they’ve got to do the same thing tonight. Utilize your speed. Utilize your instincts and just play.”

Slaggert used his speed to create a prime scoring chance in the opening minutes of the game. In the second period, Kurashev was set up in the slot, but the puck bounced over his stick before he could get a shot off.  

The third line was much better in their second game together. They were very effective on the forecheck and made life difficult for Pittsburgh defenders. In 8:52 of 5v5 ice time, they outshot the Penguins 5-2 and had a 53.8 Corsi for percentage, the second-best of the four lines.