The Chicago Blackhawks played in what was their unofficial dress rehearsal on Friday night against the Minnesota Wild at the United Center. The lineup looked a lot like the one that they will ice out there in Sunrise against the Florida Panthers in regular-season game one.
The first period went well for Chicago. It started with a Frank Nazar goal just 6:25 in. Wyatt Kaiser, Teuvo Teravainen, and Tyler Bertuzzi made a nice play, which led to the puck ending up on Nazar’s stick for the goal.
Less than five minutes later, Nick Foligno tipped in a Sam Rinzel shot for the 2-0 Chicago lead. They took that to the first intermission.
The second period wasn’t as kind to them, though. Vladimir Tarasenko, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Ryan Hartman scored three consecutive goals for the Wild to take a 3-2 lead. That score held through the second intermission.
All three goals in the middle frame were scored on the power play, so the penalty kill is something that Jeff Blashill must get his team to clean up if they want to win games in 2025-26.
In the third, the Blackhawks put together a ferocious effort to get the game tied, especially at the end with Spencer Knight off for the extra attacker, but they were unable to get the job done.
As mentioned before, the penalty kill struggled against the Wild power play in the second period. There were moments, especially when the puck found Frank Nazar, where they looked dangerous down a man, but three goals against were the difference in the game.
The Blackhawks went 0-3 on their own power plays, which makes them 0-9 since returning home and icing mostly NHL lineups. You have to score power-play goals to win in this league, so expect a lot of emphasis on that going into the regular season.
That’s it in the preseason for most, if not all, of the players who will be on the opening night roster. An AHL-caliber group will take on the St. Louis Blues at the United Center on Saturday night.
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