CHICAGO — The Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets started with a frenetic five-goal first period and ended with a four-goal third, but in the end multiple Hawks rallies came up short in a 7-4 loss Thursday at the United Center.
The Blue Jackets’ Patrick Laine had a hat trick and Boone Jenner had a goal and two assists.
It was the fifth loss in seven games for the Hawks in the opener of a six-game homestand.
The Hawks got their first three goals from unusual sources — Philipp Kurashev, Ryan Carpenter and MacKenzie Entwistle — to keep the game within reach, but they had to dig out of an early deficit. The Blue Jackets scored goals 13 seconds apart within the first 7 minutes, 11 seconds of the first period.
Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom, making his second career start, initially blocked Jakub Voracek’s one-timer off Zach Werenski’s setup, but Jenner seized the rebound to put it back door. Soderblom had trouble with rebounds for much of the night.
In what seemed like a blink later, the Blue Jackets emerged with the puck after a wall battle, and Gustav Nyquist dished it to Yegor Chinakhov, who wristed it past Soderblom to make it 2-0.
When the Hawks fell into a 2-0 deficit early in the first against the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 2, it ended in a 5-0 shutout. But the Hawks staged a comeback Thursday against the Blue Jackets.
Kurashev tapped in Dominik Kubalík’s blast to make it 2-1 at 10:24 of the first.
Kurashev was coming off a one-game scratch — a little tough love during the Valentine’s Day win against the Winnipeg Jets — as coach Derek King was trying to send him a message by replacing him with Henrik Borgstrom.
“It’s the old separate yourself from those bottom guys, and we’ll just get a little rotation going,” King said. “Hopefully Kurashev got the point that he’s got to work hard when he doesn’t have the puck.”
Four minutes after Kurashev’s goal, Carpenter scored his first of the season.
Seth Jones started the breakout, Kurashev threaded two defenders to get a stick on it and Brett Connolly fished it off the back wall and fed Carpenter on a breakaway.
Carpenter whipped it past Elvis Merzlikins to rally the Hawks to a 2-2 tie.
But with 3:05 left before the intermission, Max Domi roofed it to put the Jackets back up 3-2. Chinakhov had the assist.
Laine put the Blue Jackets back up by two just nine seconds into the second period. It initially was ruled no goal, but a video review confirmed it crossed the line.
Jones was playing his first game against his former team after missing the January game in Columbus, Ohio, with COVID-19. He momentarily appeared to pull the Hawks within a goal with a short-range wrister with 61/2 minutes left in the period, but a video review ruled he hit the post.
A few minutes later, Carpenter passed along the blue line to Calvin de Haan, whose shot went between Kurashev’s legs and through to Entwistle, who poked it in for a goal to make it 4-3 with 1:58 left in the third.
After Laine put the Blue Jackets up by two with his second of the night at 7:58 of the third, Alex DeBrincat gave the Hawks one last surge, scoring his 29th goal of the season off Patrick Kane’s backhand pass from below the goal line.
It was Kane’s 719th career assist, tying him with Denis Savard for second in franchise history to Stan Mikita’s 926.
But four minutes later, the Jackets’ Oliver Bjorkstrand padded the lead with a rebound goal. Domi and Zach Werenski were credited with assists.
Soderblom had 30 saves, including six on the penalty kill.
The Hawks pulled Soderblom with 31/2 minutes left in the game, and they had a 6-on-4 power play with 21/2 left, but Laine’s empty-netter with five seconds remaining sealed it.
