The Chicago Blackhawks were missing too much firepower and the Carolina Hurricanes made sure that showed up on the scoreboard.
Without Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, Chicago fell 5-2 to Carolina on Saturday at the United Center, dropping to 1-5-0 and suffering regulation losses in five of its first six games. The Hurricanes improved to 4-1-1 behind goals from Mark Jankowski, Sebastian Aho, Jackson Blake, Taylor Hall and Jordan Martinook, while Brandon Bussi stopped 24 shots.
Spencer Knight took the loss after allowing five goals on 39 shots. Roman Kantserov and Oliver Moore scored for the Blackhawks.
Chicago actually had a chance to set the tone early. The Blackhawks generated several dangerous looks in the opening period, but Bussi shut down Wyatt Kaiser on a breakaway, Patrick Kane couldn’t finish a rebound chance from point-blank range, and Tyler Bertuzzi missed an open Kantserov at the far post on the power play. Those misses hurt immediately, because Carolina kept building pressure and eventually broke through just before the first intermission.
Jankowski opened the scoring at 19:03 of the first period, finishing a rush after Kaiser and Artyom Rinzel got caught pressing too far up ice. The Hurricanes carried a 1-0 lead into the break and had a 16-7 edge in shots.
Then the second period turned into a Carolina surge.
Aho made it 2-0 at 2:09 after Bowen Byram lost his stick, and Blake pushed the lead to 3-0 at 3:28 when Logan Stankoven found him alone in the slot. Chicago finally answered at 4:40, when Kantserov scored his first NHL goal and point on a breakaway.
But the momentum barely lasted a minute. Taylor Hall, the former Blackhawk, ripped a one-timer from the high slot past Knight at 6:05 to restore the three-goal cushion.
By the end of 40 minutes, Carolina had a 4-1 lead, a 30-13 shot advantage and the kind of control the Blackhawks couldn’t wrestle away.
Martinook added another at 5:00 of the third period on a backhand from the slot, and Chicago’s only response came from Moore at 14:14. Moore created space with his skating and knocked the puck out of mid-air for his second goal of the season.
The Blackhawks never found a way around Carolina’s pressure. After the game, head coach Jeff Blashill said, “They just believe in their pressure system… in terms of pressure, that’s how we want to play,” and added, “There’s a good lesson for our guys to see some of that.”
Carolina spent much of the night winning puck battles, extending cycles and forcing Chicago to defend shift after shift. After 40 minutes, the Blackhawks had just six high-danger scoring chances.
The Blackhawks now turn to Tuesday’s home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the second stop on a long homestand.
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