The Blackhawks got the kind of preseason jolt that can hide a lot of ugliness: a 4-3 overtime win, a Bowen Byram hat trick, and a home crowd leaving the United Center with a finish worth remembering. But the first preseason game on home ice also came with a reminder that Chicago’s margin for error is still thin.
Minnesota needed just 15 seconds to open the scoring, with Bobby Brink tipping in the game’s first shot. Chicago answered later in the first when Nick Lardis came out of the penalty box, jumped on a turnover and finished the breakaway to even things up.
Byram then took over. Early in the second period, the offseason addition found room in the right circle and picked the top corner for a 2-1 Chicago lead. He struck again in the first minute of the third when an attempted centering pass for Roman Kantserov deflected off a Minnesota stick and into the net.
That 3-1 cushion didn’t hold. Max Shabanov beat Spencer Knight with a quick shot about four minutes later, then Brink worked his way through a 1-on-2 chance against the Blackhawks defense and buried his second of the night to tie it. In overtime, Byram finished off the hat trick and ended it for Chicago.
There was plenty for the Blackhawks to like individually, starting with Byram. The obvious caveat is that Minnesota iced an AHL-heavy lineup, but Byram still looked every bit the dynamic offensive threat Chicago hoped for.
Beyond the three goals, he also rang one off the post on a rush chance he created himself in the second period. He kept showing up in the neutral zone and the offensive zone, moving the puck and moving himself into dangerous spots all night.
Two other blue-liners also flashed in a big way. Sam Rinzel was active offensively and helped spark the sequence that led to Byram’s first goal by carrying the puck from the point to behind the net, something he did more than once.
Artyom Levshunov had similar offensive forays, including one first-period rush where he stepped up from the blue line, split defenders and created a prime chance. Neither defender had any major breakdowns to go with the aggression.
Roman Kantserov’s first unofficial game in a Blackhawks sweater also had some encouraging moments. He picked up an assist and led the team in individual expected goals created at 0.31, along with six individual shot attempts and three individual scoring chances, tied with Rinzel in the last two categories. He also showed the physical edge the reports promised, delivering a big hit on his former KHL teammate Danila Yurov.
Knight had an uneven night. The Shabanov goal looked like one he’d probably want back because of the angle, though he did answer with a key save on a later breakaway.
The final Minnesota goal felt more like a failure in front of him than a clean beat on the goalie, though a stop there would have been nice. Still, any larger concern can wait for the regular season.
The bigger issue was what happened away from the highlight reel. Chicago had trouble handling Brink, who was allowed to go 1-on-2 against Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser on a sequence that should have been shut down.
And even with the individual bright spots, Minnesota controlled the 5-on-5 numbers: 46-44 in shot attempts, 20-18 in shots on goal, 27-18 in scoring chances, 9-4 in high-danger chances and a 56.3 percent expected-goals share. The third period was worse, with the Wild holding the edge in every major category and finishing with a 61.2 percent expected-goals share in the final 20 minutes.
That matters, especially against a Minnesota lineup that did not include players like Hughes and Kaprizov and Faber and Boldy and more. Chicago found some good things to build on - Byram, Lardis, Rinzel, Levshunov, Kantserov, and even Ryan Greene’s pass on the first Byram goal - but the broader picture still wasn’t clean. A blown 3-1 lead against an AHL-heavy roster is the kind of game this team has seen too often this decade, even if this time it ended in a win.
The Blackhawks close out the preseason on the road Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues at 7 p.m.
In Other News...
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Blackhawks Cut Leaves Veteran Defenseman In Roster Limbo
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For now, the next stop appears to be Rockford, where Pouliot is expected to play a major defensive role for the IceHogs in the 2026-27 season. It is a familiar kind of pivot for a player at this stage of his career, one who can still help an organization depth-wise even as the path back to Chicago becomes less certain. [Read more 🡒]