The Chicago Blackhawks raced out to a 2-0 lead against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night, and they were off to a tremendous start in their effort to earn a third consecutive victory.
Ryan Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi each scored for the second straight game, as the Blackhawks were thrashing the Canucks in the opening 20 minutes. Vancouver sure looked like a team on the back end of a road back-to-back early on Friday.
But the Blackhawks let the Canucks off the hook in the second period, when it felt like they were in full control of the contest and could have put their foot on the pedal. They were able to do precisely that in the third period of Wednesday’s 8-3 beatdown over the rival St. Louis Blues, with the young group finally showing a killer instinct. They lacked that against the Canucks, and it cost them two points.
“They’re on the back half of a back-to-back, we go up 2-0, that’s when you just can’t give them life, and I thought we got passive in the second period, way too passive as the period went on,” head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. “We should have been able to walk out of this game with two points.”
Vancouver received a power-play goal from Jake DeBrusk to cut the Blackhawks’ lead in half in the middle frame. Then, just under seven minutes later, Max Sasson tied the game with an easy tap-in to erase the home squad’s advantage.
Chicago had plenty of opportunities in the third period, overtime, and the shootout to extend their winning streak, but former Blackhawks’ goaltender Kevin Lankinen came up with some remarkable stops to remain undefeated against his old team. Lankinen is now 4-0-0 versus the Blackhawks and has only surrendered more than two goals once.
The Canucks were also the beneficiary of a questionable no-goal call late in the third period, which will be shared down below. Bertuzzi appeared to put the Blackhawks ahead 3-2 with his second tally of the night, but the officials immediately waived off the goal. Blashill challenged the call, but the play stood for goaltender interference after a review.
“I won’t comment because I’ll probably get fined,” Bertuzzi said during his postgame media availability. “I think it was not that great of a call, that’s what I think.”
Here are the highlights from another one-goal loss for the Blackhawks.
FIRST PERIOD
The Blackhawks seemed to carry over their momentum from Wednesday’s win in St. Louis during the first period. On their second power-play opportunity of the game, a patient Andre Burakovsky skated down to the left dot and set up Donato back door for his second goal of the season. Burakovsky was very noticeable out of the gate on Friday and made a few quality passes to give his teammates opportunities. In fact, it was Burakovsky who sprung defenseman Wyatt Kaiser for a breakaway, which led to a slashing penalty by Evander Kane. Donato scored on the ensuing man-advantage.
Artyom Levshunov➡️Andre Burakovsky➡️Ryan Donato🚨
Donato knocks home the feed from Burakovsky on the power play for his 2nd goal of the season! #Blackhawks strike first to take a 1-0 lead. Burakovsky now has a 6-game point streak against the Canucks.pic.twitter.com/qY2uJuzaY5
— Talkin’ Hawkey (@TalkinHawkey) October 18, 2025
With less than a minute to play in the period, Bertuzzi was on the ice with Burakovsky and Connor Bedard, and that trio had an excellent shift together that led to the Blackhawks’ second tally. Bertuzzi cleaned up Sam Rinzel’s rebound on a shot from the point to pick up his second goal of the season.
After 20 minutes, the Blackhawks led 13-7 in scoring chances and 9-5 in high-danger chances in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick. They had a tired Canucks squad on the ropes, but they were unable to capitalize in the second period.
SECOND PERIOD
The Blackhawks were given another power-play chance early in the second period that could have further extended their lead, but Bedard took a slashing penalty to negate it. That was the beginning of a lackluster stretch for the Blackhawks.
Donato took a slashing penalty of his own only a few minutes after, and that provided a spark for the Canucks to get themselves right back into the game.
DeBrusk potted a power-play goal by cleaning up the loose change in front of goaltender Spencer Knight after a centering feed from Conor Garland. Suddenly, the momentum had swung in favor of the visitors.
Like Blashill stated, the Hawks were on their heels in the second period, and Sasson ended up tying the game on a scrambly play. Three players were caught near the boards, which left way too much space for Filip Hronek and Sasson in the most dangerous area of the ice. Jason Dickinson was unable to get in between Sasson and the net, which gave the Canucks’ forward a wide-open net on a pass from Hronek.
Despite only giving up four shots on net, the Blackhawks were stuck in their own end and let the Canucks possess the puck for most of the period. Vancouver led 10-4 in scoring chances and 6-4 in high-danger chances in all situations.
THIRD PERIOD
For the fourth time in the first six games of the season, the Blackhawks were tied 2-2 going into the final frame. They were 0-2-1 in the three previous contests where they found themselves in this same scenario.
There was actually a second breakaway chance from a defenseman here in the third period, as six-foot-eight Louis Crevier, of all people, broke free but had his chip shot ring off the crossbar. That would have sent the Madhouse into an absolute frenzy.
Here’s the moment of the night. With a little over five minutes remaining, the Burakovsky-Bedard-Bertuzzi line put together another tremendous sequence in the offensive zone, which appeared to be capped off by Bertuzzi’s second goal of the game. The gritty and grindy forward followed up on Matt Grzelcyk’s shot and poked the puck past the goal line, but the officials didn’t hesitate to overturn the tally.
Blashill’s challenge was unsuccessful, meaning the Canucks got a power-play chance immediately after the Blackhawks thought they had taken a late lead. Brutal. Check out Blashill’s reaction on the bench after the officials deemed there was goaltender interference on the play.
Knight and Chicago’s penalty kill did some outstanding work late in the third period, as they killed off a pair of infractions to get the game into overtime. Bedard was also called for a contentious holding penalty immediately after the Blackhawks killed off the delay-of-game minor from the unsuccessful challenge. In a tie game late in the period, after the Canucks just received a power play, I’m not sure how this was called.
For the fourth time in the last five games, the Blackhawks earned at least one point. But given their early edge and torrid start to Friday’s game, anything less than two points wouldn’t suffice.
Overtime/Shootout
Both teams had prime-time chances in the 3-on-3 period, but the Canucks had the more dangerous of the opportunities. The best save during overtime came from Knight on Elias Pettersson (the forward), as the Swedish forward diced through Bedard and Lukas Reichel and tried to stuff a shot home down low.
For the first time in the 2025-26 season, a Blackhawks game needed a shootout to determine the winner.
The team’s four shooters, Teuvo Teravainen, Bedard, Frank Nazar, and Donato, were each stopped by Lankinen in the shootout.
Knight did all he could to keep the Blackhawks alive, stopping Pettersson, Conor Garland, and DeBrusk in the opening three rounds. But the Canucks eventually got one past the 24-year-old netminder, as Brock Boeser sealed the second come-from-behind win for the Canucks in as many days.
Despite another frustrating one-goal loss, the Blackhawks move to 2-2-2 through their opening six games this year. With countless young and inexperienced players on the roster, plus a new head coach in Blashill, that’s still a pretty sound start, all things considered. They’ve been competitive in every game they’ve played, and that’s undoubtedly proof that progress is being made.
Still, this was a golden opportunity to finally beat a Canucks team that’s tormented them over the years. Vancouver has now won 11 games in a row against Chicago, and 15 of the past 17 meetings.
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