The Chicago Blackhawks ended a losing streak on Monday. The Red Wings will try to do the same against the Blackhawks in Detroit on Wednesday.
Chicago ended a four-game slide by blanking Ottawa 5-0. Alex Stalock recorded his second shutout of the season by making 35 saves.
“That’s a bonus on anything, but just winning any night in this league is so dang hard,” Stalock said. “The league’s so good, every team’s so good. … Any time there’s stuff like that, it’s a bonus, but the two points is the most important thing that anybody cares about at the end of the night.”
Seth Jones scored twice and Anders Bjork assisted on all three second-period goals in his second game with the club. He was acquired in a trade from the Buffalo Sabres last week.
“Yeah, it felt great,” he said. “Those were two great shots that (Jones) had there, so (I’m) glad I passed to him. Those were unbelievable goals. That was a great win for us. I thought we played the right way the whole game and everyone played well.”
The Blackhawks haven’t enjoyed games like that very often. They still have the fewest points (49) in the Western Conference. Prior to the shutout, the Blackhawks had been outscored 16-6 during the losing streak.
“We played real solid (defense), so it translated into real good offense,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said.
Defenseman Andreas Englund departed in the second period because of a lower-body injury. He will sit out Wednesday.
Chicago won the first meeting against Detroit 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 21. The Blackhawks trailed 3-1 entering the third period and tied it on goals by Philipp Kurashev and Connor Murphy. Max Domi’s unassisted goal completed the comeback.
Domi was traded to Dallas last week.
The Red Wings will be looking to end a six-game winless streak. Prior to the slide, the Red Wings were in good position for a wild-card berth.
That’s a longshot now and the trade deadline added to their misery. GM Steve Yzerman traded away four players, mainly to stock up on draft picks.
“We just need to come together as a group,” goaltender Ville Husso said. “We lost a couple of big players and it was emotional for some guys, but it’s part of it. We just need to come together and there are spots open for other guys. There’s no secret on how to come out of this. Just keep battling, just need to out-battle the other team, and go day by day.”
The Red Wings haven’t played since Sunday, when they lost 3-1 at Philadelphia. The game wasn’t decided until the Flyers scored a late empty-net goal.
Coach Derek Lalonde believes the team will get over its funk.
“The good thing is we have our group now,” he said. “Injuries, trades, a lot went on the last week. But we have our group. Hopefully, we can build off this. (Sunday) was very frustrating. (It) was an extremely winnable game. It was sitting there for us in the second period and we gave it back.”
Detroit’s last victory came on Feb. 23 against the New York Rangers.
–Field Level Media
