The Chicago Blackhawks battled back from a 3-1 deficit to earn a point for the sixth time in eight games to begin March, but still ended up falling 4-3 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild at the United Center on Tuesday. It\u2019s the third occasion this season in which they\u2019ve lost 4-3 in overtime or in a shootout to the Wild.<\/p>\n
Dating back to February 2020, the Blackhawks have now dropped 18 of the last 19 meetings with the Wild. They\u2019ve come close to taking down one of the NHL\u2019s top teams in all three matchups in 2025-26, only to come away with a frustrating result in each instance.<\/p>\n
But considering how young and inexperienced the Blackhawks\u2019 lineup was on Tuesday, and the force they were up against, there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged by the turnaround over the final half of the game. Following a nightmarish first period, the Hawks led in shot attempts, scoring chances, high-danger chances, and goals for over the final 43 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played really good in the second half of the game,\u201d head coach Jeff Blashill said during his postgame presser. \u201cWe were able to even the chances up by the end of the game. I liked that we dug in, I liked our response\u2026 I think it speaks to our guys, there\u2019s character in the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many young players, such as Artyom Levshunov, Connor Bedard, Ryan Greene, and Louis Crevier, all 24 years old or younger, their standout performances helped the Blackhawks get back into the game. Their efforts never swayed despite a slow start from the team, and with the Wild breathing down their necks, they stepped into the fire and went blow-for-blow with a Stanley Cup contender.<\/p>\n
Hawks Hits vs. Minnesota<\/p>\n
1. Levshunov\u2019s Ice Time \u2014 Since being scratched for the final three games going into the Olympic break, Levshunov has returned with much better structure and made far fewer costly mistakes. He\u2019s still not perfect on the ice by any means, but the growth has been clear over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n
With his recent progression, Levshunov earned an opportunity on the top pairing with Alex Vlasic on Tuesday for the first time in months. He\u2019s deserved more ice time, and he got just that against Minnesota. Levshunov skated a career-high 26:29 and was effective, recording one assist and two shots on goal. When on the ice at even strength, the Blackhawks led 29-20 in shot attempts and 12-10 in scoring chances. Pretty sharp, especially considering he played against Minnesota\u2019s top offensive threats all night. Individually, he also tallied a team-high nine shot attempts.<\/p>\n
Levshunov\u2019s assist came via a marvelous stretch pass to generate a 2-on-1 for Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, which led to the game-tying goal with 1:40 left in regulation. There have been more positives than negatives lately with Levshunov, and that\u2019s what the Blackhawks are hoping for from the 2024 No. 2 overall pick. At just 20 years old, making mistakes is inevitable, but it\u2019s about limiting those moments and finding better consistency.<\/p>\n
2. Big Lou Brings The Heat \u2014 Through his first 56 NHL games combined from the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Crevier had just three goals and four assists for seven points. Following Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Wild, the former seventh-round selection now has 17 points (5G, 12A) in 64 games this year. He\u2019s made sneaky developments within his offensive game.<\/p>\n
Crevier got the Blackhawks on the board in the first period with his fifth goal of the season, tying Wyatt Kaiser for the team lead among defensemen. He also added the secondary assist on Greene\u2019s goal, giving him his fourth multi-point effort in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t anything fancy about Crevier\u2019s play in the offensive zone, but he\u2019s proven effective at getting pucks on net. He leads all Hawks blue-liners with 92 shots, and with how much power he generates, opposing goaltenders often don\u2019t stand a chance. That was the case for Filip Gustavsson near the midway point of the opening period, as Crevier belted a 102-mile-per-hour slap shot right past the Wild netminder\u2019s blocker.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, that was the hardest shot recorded on any NHL goal this season. Crevier\u2019s assist was also the result of simply firing the puck on goal from the point. Keep it up, big fella.<\/p>\n
3. Two More For Bedard \u2014 With assists on the Blackhawks\u2019 final two goals of the evening, Bedard now has 64 points (27G, 37A) in 54 games this season and has rattled off four multi-point outings since the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Bedard has been much more lethal in his last 10 appearances and has returned to regularly being the most dominant player on the ice. He looked the part again on Tuesday, recording two points, four shots on goal, eight shot attempts, and four individual scoring chances in 23:04 of ice time. When on the ice at even strength, the Blackhawks led 20-17 in shot attempts, 11-9 in shots on goal, and 2-0 in goals for.<\/p>\n
The 2023 No. 1 overall pick is on pace to finish the season while averaging over a point per game for the first time in his NHL career. Had Bedard not missed one month due to a shoulder injury, he likely would be pushing for 100 points over the final 15 games. His current 1.18 points-per-game gives him 97 points over the course of an 82-game schedule. Bedard\u2019s development during his junior season has been beyond encouraging.<\/p>\n
4. Cold Penalty Kill? \u2014 In Saturday\u2019s 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Blackhawks surrendered two power-play goals in the same game for the first time since Dec. 7, over three months ago. Pavel Dorofeyev, one of the NHL\u2019s deadliest snipers on the man advantage, burned them twice at T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday at the United Center, noted Blackhawks killer Vladimir Tarasenko cashed in for a power-play tally on Minnesota\u2019s lone man advantage of the game. It\u2019s the second time since returning from the Olympics that Chicago has allowed a power-play goal in back-to-back games.<\/p>\n
Special teams play has been a determining factor in many of the Blackhawks games this season. When winning that battle, there\u2019s a strong chance they come out of the building with two points. If they lose that battle, odds are a win isn\u2019t in their sights.<\/p>\n
In the 26 games this season in which the Blackhawks have given up a PPG, they\u2019ve only won twice.<\/p>\n
5. Greene Day \u2014 It was only fitting that Greene found the back of the net on St. Patrick\u2019s Day. Greene scored his ninth goal of the season and added four shots, two blocks, and one hit. The 2022 second-round pick also recorded 21:25 of ice time, his third-most of the season.<\/p>\n
In the final game before the Olympic break, Greene was healthy scratched for the first time this season, as he had appeared in every game as a rookie up to that point. While it might not have been the most deserved \u201cpunishment\u201d, Greene has responded precisely how Jeff Blashill had hoped.<\/p>\n
In 10 games since the NHL season resumed, Greene has found his way on the stat sheet in four of them and has been the more effective linemate for Bedard. Even in games where he didn\u2019t produce a point, he\u2019s moved the puck well with Bedard and hasn\u2019t been a hindrance for the line, like Andre Burakovsky often has.<\/p>\n
With 24 points on the season, Greene is tied with Levshunov for the most among all rookies on the team. For a player who was largely expected to begin his professional career at the AHL level, Greene has impressed while immediately being thrown into the fire with the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n
For more Blackhawks news, visit Chicago Hockey Now<\/a> and like our Facebook Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow us on X:<\/p>\n @chihockeynow<\/a>, @JackBushman2<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks battled back from a 3-1 deficit to earn a point for the sixth time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[495,38249,53593,59642,96,508,5,1565,161,38,5280,4,855,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-509816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-artyom-levshunov","9":"tag-blackhawks-recap","10":"tag-blackhawks-takeaways","11":"tag-blackhawks-wild","12":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","13":"tag-connor-bedard","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-louis-crevier","16":"tag-minnesota","17":"tag-minnesota-wild","18":"tag-minnesotawild","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-ryan-greene","21":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116251105965149705","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}