Chicago Staves Off Elimination

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.