Chicago’s final road game of the 2025-26 season ended with a defeat, this one a 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks.
The Hawks scored first just a power play expired about nine minutes into the game, when some nifty puck movement resulted in a one-timer for Frank Nazar, with the resultant rebound leading to an easy tap-in for Ryan Donato:
GOAL: Ryan Donato buries a rebound as the power play expires to open the scoring. pic.twitter.com/69k4nTzlKh
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
San Jose tied the game seven minutes into the second when a bad Chicago turnover led to a William Eklund breakaway:
Eklund picks off Kaiser’s pass and scores. pic.twitter.com/TbCFtHuFhy
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
The Sharks took the lead about eight minutes later on this one-timer from Kiefer Sherwood:
Sherwood scores. pic.twitter.com/ANZz15Euli
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
And then San Jose doubled its advantage at the 3:28 mark of the third when Collin Graf found Will Smith open in the low slot:
Pretty pass by Graf to find Smith who scores. pic.twitter.com/rBYAmGuJwe
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
It became a one-goal game again about three minutes later, when a long stretch of sustained pressure from Chicago’s top power-play unit culminated in this Frank Nazar PPG:
GOAL: Frank Nazar caps off another fantastic power play to record his 15th goal of the season. pic.twitter.com/rCI8eXnJz2
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
The Hawks had some good looks down the stretch, including this one for Anton Frondell with about 80 seconds remaining:
Frondell gets a great look to tie it: pic.twitter.com/0pI6AKIH4J
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
And this one for Nazar:
Ohhh man what a look for Frank Nazar: pic.twitter.com/cmFYZceNYl
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
But that third Chicago goal never did materialize.
Notes
Continuing a theme of the last few weeks: another solid outing for Kevin Korchinski. He had the best expected goal share on the team at 70.63 percent despite not having the most generous deployment, starting in the offensive zone just 33.3 percent of the time — second lowest among Hawks blue-liners. No points, but his 15:38 of ice time was a season-high. Below is the kind of thing he’s made routine recently: a crisp 100-foot pass that surpasses three defenders and sends Chicago into the offensive zone with numbers:
https://t.co/jTwD0Ge0sJ pic.twitter.com/4Juzoe0zMC
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
Speaking of routine occurrences — this of the season-long variety — here’s another sample of candiates for Spencer Knight’s highlight reel:
Fantastic save by Knight on Toffoli: pic.twitter.com/7YiLT3tnZ1
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
Big save by Spencer Knight on Celebrini: pic.twitter.com/NrLKzHRGg9
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
Another: https://t.co/eaPXnVPdEx pic.twitter.com/T7dgMUJzTi
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
Not sure what speed it would take to fire a hockey puck *through* a post but Frondell seemed to be approaching it with this missile:
Now this one dents the post: https://t.co/YK3AfJTIIj pic.twitter.com/GpT3yQYu6D
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 7, 2026
Speaking of that top power-play unit, here’s a 55-second clip of them generating a flurry of chances in the second period without scoring, including the Frondell chance above. The movement of the puck and the players is the key to the generation of scoring chances here, and hopefully that becomes the norm among this quintet if it’s kept together:
#Blackhawks generated 11 shot attempts on this power play. They did everything but score. pic.twitter.com/gKmFJIoOvB
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) April 7, 2026
Blashill seemed to enjoy what he was seeing from that group, too:
Blashill on the 5F PP1: “They’re definitely catching some confidence and swagger. Bedsy up top is real dangerous, he’s a great distributor. …I think they’ve looked good every time they’ve been together, to be honest with you, and tonight was probably the best we’ve looked.”
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) April 7, 2026 at 12:01 AM
Asked Jeff Blashill if he’ll consider sticking with five-forward PP next season:
“I’d have to be crazy not to. I have no issue with five forwards. It doesn’t matter if it’s a forward or D back there; that doesn’t dictate whether or not you give up shorthanded chances. To me,…
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 7, 2026
If there’s a general theme from this game, it’s that the Hawks didn’t do enough at 5-on-5 to earn the win. Chicago did end with a 29-23 advantage in shots on goal overall, but was outshot 20-16 during the 48:53 in 5-on-5 play during this game. San Jose also had the advantage in shot attempts (44-20) and scoring chances (20-11) and high-danger chances (12-5), resulting in an expected goal share of 56.91 percent for the home side. Not a huge number, but enough to make the difference in this game.
Four more back at 1901 W. Madison and then we’re all done ’til October. The Hawks are currently 31st in the league standings, with 70 points in 78 games. The only team they can realistically “catch” in the standings is Calgary, which is currently at 72 points in just 76 games. Seems like the No. 2 draft lottery odds are damn near certain at this point.
Game Charts
Three Stars
William Eklund (SJ) — 1 goal, 1 assist
Frank Nazar (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
Will Smith (SJ) — 1 goal
What’s Next
The Blackhawks are back at the United Center for the rest of the season, starting with Thurdsay’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m.