Chicago looks to stay alive while the Vegas Golden Knights looks to advance to the Second Round of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Here’s how the line-ups look for both the Vegas Golden Knights and Chicago Blackhawks
Vegas Golden Knights Lines and Defencive Pairings
Max Pacioretty | Chandler Stephenson | Mark Stone | ||
Jonathan Marchessault | William Karlsson | Reilly Smith | ||
Nick Cousins | Nicolas Roy | Alex Tuch | ||
William Carrier | Patrick Brown | Ryan Reaves | ||
Brayden McNabb | Nate Schmidt | |||
Alec Martinez | Shea Theodore | |||
Nick Holden | Zach Whitecloud | |||
Robin Lehner | ||||
Marc-Andre Fleury |
Unfit to Play: Tomas Nosek
Scratched:
Patrick Brown | Dylan Coghlan | Oscar Dansk | Reid Duke | Deryk Engelland |
Nicolas Hague | Keegan Kolesar | Peyton Krebs | Jon Merrill | Gage Quinney |
Chicago Blackhawks Lines and Defencive Pairings:
Brandon Saad | Jonathan Toews | Dominik Kubalik | ||
Drake Caggiula | Kirby Dach | Patrick Kane | ||
Alex DeBrincat | Dylan Strome | Alex Nylander | ||
Matthew Highmore | David Kampf | Ryan Carpenter | ||
Duncan Keith | Adam Boqvist | |||
Calvin de Haan | Connor Murphy | |||
Olli Maatta | Slater Koekkoek | |||
Corey Crawford | ||||
Malcolm Subban’ |
Unfit to Play: None
Scratched:
Collin Delia | MacKenzie Entwistle | Brandon Hagel | John Quenneville | Dylan Sikura |
Phillip Kurashev | Nicolas Beaudin | Lucas Carlsson | Alec Regula | Nick Seeler |
Kevin Lankinen |
1st Period Analysis and Summary:
Chaos starts around Chicago’s net on top of an inadvertent high stick on Vegas to Brandon Saad. No goals scored but Vegas is attacking the net hard to start of the first 60 seconds of the contest.
Chicago opens up the scoring with Drake Caggiula getting the puck in the back of the net at the 4:08 mark. That would be Caggiula’s first goal in the 2020 postseason with the assists going to Olli Maatta, third in the postseason, and Patrick Kane, eighth in the postseason.
Vegas goes on their first penalty kill when Nick Cousins is called for Slashing on Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat at the 8:26 mark. In that penalty, Chicago would get off three shots on goal but were not able to even up the score. Chicago makes it a 2-0 game at the 13:40 mark when Matthew Highmore is credited with a goal after a shot deflects off of the mask of Robin Lehner and into the back of the net. Duncan Keith would get his fifth assist in the postseason on the goal.
Vegas makes the score 2-1 when they score at the 13:58 mark with Shea Theodore’s fourth goal of the postseason. Alec Martinez and Ryan Reaves would get their third and fourth assists, respectively.
Heading into the first intermission in the contest, the Chicago Blackhawks lead 2-1.
CHI Goal | Drake Caggiula (1) | Assisted by | Olli Maatta (3) | Patrick Kane (8) | 4:08 |
VGK Penalty | Nick Holden | for | Slashing | 2 min minor | 8:26 |
CHI Goal | Matthew Highmore (3) | Assisted by | Duncan Keith (5) | 13:40 | |
VGK Goal | Shea Theodore (4) | Assisted by | Alec Martinez (3) | Ryan Reaves (4) | 13:58 |
CHI Penalty | Dylan Strome | for | Slashing | 2 min minor | 15:30 |
1st Period Stats:
Vegas | Chicago | |
Faceoffs | 14/25 | 11/25 |
Power Play | 0/1 | 0/1 |
Shots | 20 | 8 |
Hits | 9 | 9 |
2nd Period Analysis and Summary:
A battle for possession starts out the period and continues for the duration of the first four minutes of the period and there are a quite stoppages when both Vegas’ and Chicago’s goaltender freeze the puck.
Vegas goes on their second Power Play when Chicago’s Adam Boqvist is called for holding at the 7:14 mark in the period. Several attempts are made to tie the score while Vegas has the extra man but they are unsuccessful as the Chicago penalty expires. Halfway into the period, Vegas has a SOG advantage of 29-12,.
Vegas goes back on the Power Play after the Blackhawks’ Brandon Saad is called for a slashing at the 11:17 mark. The Power Play for Vegas ends, registering four shots, but the score remains 2-1 Chicago. Vegas heads to the penalty kill at the 15:51 mark for a holding call on Zach Whitecloud. Chicago is unsuccessful on the extra man advantage, getting one shot off, and the score remains 2-1.
Heading into the second intermission, the score remains 2-1 Chicago.
CHI Penalty | Adam Boqvist | for | Holding | 2 min minor | 7:16 |
CHI Penalty | Brandon Saad | for | Slashing | 2 min minor | 11:17 |
VGK Penalty | Zach Whitecloud | for | Holding | 2 min minor | 15:51 |
2nd Period Stats:
Vegas | Chicago | |
Faceoffs | 22/40 | 18/40 |
Power Play | 0/3 | 0/2 |
Shots | 36 | 15 |
Hits | 28 | 20 |
3rd Period Analysis and Summary:
Both teams are fatigued in the period, and it shows when Vegas heads to the penalty kill when Shea Theodore is called for hooking at 5:28 in the period. This will be Vegas’ third penalty in the contest. Chicago, once again, doesn’t take advantage of the extra man, registering two shots in that extra man advantage.
Corey Crawford has been making excellent saves in the contest, going high-glove on the saves and even blocking a couple of shots with his facemask. Saves like this have kept Chicago in the lead and saves like that need to continue if the Blackhawks want to remain in the bubble and the postseason.
With 1:20 remaining in the period, Vegas pulls Lehner to bring out the extra attacker. Chicago scores at 19:49 with Alex DeBrincat scoring on a breakaway goal. The goal would be DeBrincat’s first in the postseason.
VGK Penalty | Shea Theodore | for | Hooking | 2 min minor | 5:28 |
CHI EN Goal | Alex DeBrincat (1) | Assisted by | Connor Murphy (3) | 19:49 |
3rd period Stats:
Vegas | Chicago | |
Faceoffs | 30/58 | 28/58 |
Power Play | 0/3 | 0/3 |
Shots | 47 | 25 |
Hits | 40 | 26 |
Chicago fends off the sweep and wins Game 4 in the series 3-1.
Game 5 in the contest takes place Tuesday night.
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