NEWARK, N.J. — After Connor Bedard and Nick Foligno left with injuries, the severely undermanned Blackhawks let a rare opportunity to end their road losing streak slip through their grasp Friday.
The Hawks allowed three unanswered goals in the third period to fall 4-2 to the Devils. They haven’t won away from Chicago since Nov. 9 in Tampa, Florida, losing 14 consecutive road games since then.
Boris Katchouk scored a short-handed goal to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead shortly before the second intermission — and taunted fans at Prudential Center with his hand cupped to his ear — but rookie Simon Nemec tied the score for the Devils before Michael McLeod gave them the lead for good.
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t get it done at the end,” coach Luke Richardson said. “They’re a strong team, and they kept coming and just found a few cracks in the third period. But we really didn’t play poorly. We just ran out of a little bit of steam compared to a full lineup on the other side.”
Before the scoring picked up, the game devolved into an absolute melee for a while. The second period featured tons of crushing hits, several after-the-whistle scrums, 14 penalties and two official fights: Alex Vlasic vs. Nathan Bastian and Foligno vs. Brendan Smith, which led to Foligno’s injury. Devils star Jack Hughes ended up leaving with an injury late in the third period, too.
“That’s hockey,” defenseman Jarred Tinordi said. “They brought it tonight. We responded well; we brought it, too. Those are the fun games you want to play in. There was a little more emotion out there tonight. Both teams wanted to win bad.”
Soderblom takes stride
After a lengthy run of poor play, young goalie Arvid Soderblom built on his strong start Tuesday against the Predators with another solid performance against the Devils. He was particularly impressive in the first period and finished with 28 saves on 31 shots.
Soderblom’s season save percentage is still an ugly .875, but it has crept up slightly after bottoming out at .868. His career record, however, dropped to an almost-unfathomable 4-25-3.
“A couple [of different] bounces tonight, and he gets a win,” Richardson said. “He’s having a hard time finding a win, but [that’s] definitely two solid games in a row. That’s encouraging for him and for us.”
Four prospects win gold
The quartet of Hawks prospects on the U.S. team in the world junior championships — Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, Gavin Hayes and Sam Rinzel — finished their trip to Sweden with gold medals.
The United States routed Sweden 6-2 to win the tournament. Nazar was a standout throughout the every, notching eight points (all assists) in seven games. Moore had three points, Hayes two and Rinzel one.
“We saw it last year with [Bedard]: He got to play in that position and win,” Richardson said. “Winning is a skill, as well. You have to learn how to win.”
For Slovakia, Hawks goalie prospect Adam Gajan went 3-1-0 with a .916 save percentage and Hawks forward prospect Martin Misiak had three points in five games.
