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The Chicago Blackhawks were beaten badly by the St. Louis Blues at Wrigley Field in the Winter Classic on New Year’s Eve. It was as bad of a loss as they could have had on a national stage with the whole hockey world watching.
On Saturday night, the Blackhawks had a chance to avenge that horrific loss to the Blues. Each team dawned their incredible Winter Classic sweaters in St. Louis for the rematch which was a nice touch.
It was a great start for Chicago. Following their dominant win over the Predators on Friday night, they had the perfect first period to keep the momentum going.
Craig Smith and Ryan Donato scored goals 38 seconds apart to give Chicago a 2-0 lead. For Donato, his 19th goal of the season extended his incredible hot streak. To say he’s hotter than burnt toast is an understatement at this point.
Things went south for Chicago in the second period. They were outshot 17-3 and the Blues scored three unanswered goals. Being down 3-2 after their great first period is demoralizing.
At least, it’s usually demoralizing. The Blackhawks continued to play hard despite the terrible middle frame. They tied the game at 3 when Alec Martinez put one home off a feed from Teuvo Teravainen.
Under one minute later, Cam Fowler (who was one of the stars in the Winter Classic) scored to put his team back ahead. Shockingly, it took the Blackhawks under two minutes to tie it back up once again. Teuvo Teravainen scored the game-tying goal.
These two teams continued to play hard and exchanged goals one more time. Ilya Mikheyev and Robert Thomas were the two goal scorers for their respective teams during this sequence.
Of course, this incredible game needed more time to determine a winner. With no tiebreaker scored during overtime, a shootout was required.
The Blackhawks and Blues went 10 rounds before Radek Faksa ended one of the best games of the season in favor of the Blues. The NHL wishes that the Winter Classic went as this game did. The Blackhawks still lost in the end but they played a much closer game this time around.
One thing to note from this game is the fact that the Blackhawks continued to play hard after that abysmal second period. They’ve had terrible periods this season (many times) and are usually unable to recover. This time, they bounced back and stayed in the game.
Now, the Blackhawks are done for two weeks. The league is set to pause for the Four Nations Faceoff which will begin next week in Montreal. Teuvo Teravainen is Chicago’s lone representative in the tournament as he will play for Team Finland. When Chicago returns, it will be against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio on February 22nd.
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