Among the Blackhawks‘ many problems this season, their inability to consistently hold leads has been arguably the most frustrating.
The Hawks yet again let an advantage slip away Friday in a heart-wrenching 4-3 overtime loss to the Lightning, squandering a great performance by their rookie class.
“It’s disappointing because it’s a game we felt we could’ve won and should’ve won,” captain Nick Foligno said. “But that’s the part of the season we’re struggling with: the ‘could’ves, should’ves’ instead of just getting it done. It sucks. It’s a bad feeling in here because we’ve been doing some good things. It just gets negated.”
The Hawks led at both intermissions and by as much as 3-1 during the second period, which interim coach Anders Sorensen called their best “in a long time.”
But they were outshot 18-1 after the second intermission, and goalie Arvid Soderblom could only hold the fort for so long. Lightning forward Jake Guentzel eventually tied the game with a power-play goal with 41 seconds left in regulation, and Nikita Kucherov buried another power-play goal to end overtime 58 seconds in.
“[When] we’re up 3-2, we’re talking about that between periods: Make sure we’re getting on the forecheck,” Sorensen added. “We didn’t find any of that hardly. We had a couple of shifts maybe in the third [where] we did it. But that was about it.”
The Hawks have won just nine of 19 games they’ve led at the first intermission and 13 of 20 games they’ve led at the second intermission — the second-lowest percentages in the NHL in both categories. They’re also an abysmal 11-13-3 when scoring first, which they did not do Friday but have done the fourth-most often among NHL teams.
On the bright side, rookie forward Colton Dach buried his first NHL goal, and rookie forward Frank Nazar and rookie defenseman Louis Crevier each notched their first career multipoint NHL games. Sorensen also praised the “poise” rookie defenseman Ethan Del Mastro showed in his NHL season debut.
Frank Nazar scores his 2nd goal of the season from Connor Bedard, who has a point in 13 of his last 15 games. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/rxXsmFpwD4
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 25, 2025
Nazar’s outing marked the latest step in his impressive development. He now has four points in his last three games, a sign that the lid on his production finally might be breaking. Even outside his two scoring plays Friday, he was regularly winning battles and slashing to support teammates.
The result technically extended the Hawks’ point streak to a season-long four consecutive games, but three of those are overtime losses to the Predators, Hurricanes and now Lightning that came after they conceded an equalizing goal in the final seven minutes of regulation. They’ve blown a two-goal lead in three of their last six games now, as well.
The Hawks were without both forward Taylor Hall, whom they traded during the game to the Hurricanes, and defenseman Seth Jones, whom Sorensen said came down with a stomach bug.