The Blackhawks’ penalty-killing struggles most of this season have been “really frustrating” for defenseman Connor Murphy.
But in a 3-2 upset win Thursday over the Avalanche, Murphy and the Hawks’ penalty kill made the difference in a positive way.
The defending Stanley Cup champions found no space to maneuver on the power play, failing to convert on any of their five opportunities — including three straight in the first period. The short-handed Hawks generated just as many scoring chances (three) as the Avalanche’s power play did.
“With all the weapons [the Avalanche] have, they can make you pay at any point,” forward Taylor Raddysh said. “Our PK was in sync all night. They just stayed on them and forced them to make some tough plays. It was a big, gutsy effort.”
The Hawks had allowed 19 goals on their previous 60 penalty kills — a putrid 68.3% kill rate — but settled into a comfortable blue-line trap against the Avs.
“At times, with different guys in and out of the lineup, I don’t think it was fully comfortable,” coach Luke Richardson said. “It has been coming, just like everything else. Tonight, it really showed. Even sometimes when we misread . . . [Nathan] MacKinnon or [Cale] Makar coming up the ice, we still put pressure on them, and it puts them under the gun to make a play.
“We turned over a lot of pucks, and we did a great job in-zone. [Assistant coach Kevin Dean] spent some more time on the video this morning to get the guys prepared. We had a good plan, and we really executed.”
Raddysh scored the go-ahead goal in the third period after two perfectly placed seam passes by Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Toews, and Richardson made it the game-winner with a brazen but ultimately fruitful goaltender-interference challenge in the final five minutes.
Goaltender Petr Mrazek earned a win for only the second time since Oct. 15 by making 31 saves on 33 shots.
“I felt good personally, especially early on when they came hard and had some chances,’’ Mrazek said.
With Patrick Kane’s lower-body injury feeling much better, putting him on track to return Saturday against the Kraken, the Hawks will finish with a rather shocking 3-0-0 record during his absence.
Their first winning streak since late October has bumped them up to 26 points in 40 games, ahead of the Blue Jackets (26 points in 41 games) and no longer in last place in the NHL.
Injury report
Although Kane is expected to return against Seattle, the Hawks retroactively put him on injured reserve so they could activate forward MacKenzie Entwistle, who played well in his return after missing six games with a wrist injury.
Forward Jujhar Khaira’s situation is more concerning. He hasn’t played since Dec. 23 with a lower-back injury — less than a year after undergoing back surgery. Richardson said there’s no timeline for Khaira’s return while they wait for his back to “settle down.”
Defenseman Jarred Tinordi, who had facial surgery Dec. 19, has resumed practicing in a full cage, but he still has some screws in his jaw that won’t be removed for several weeks. He won’t return until around or after the All-Star break in early February.
“Structurally, it’s going to take time for the bones and plates to heal,” Richardson said. “He’s allowed to start ramping up his push level, fitness-wise, but [not allowed to start] banging around and going into a full game.”
