The Chicago Blackhawks played one of their most discouraging third periods of the season on Thursday night. Then again, they also played one of their most encouraging third periods of the season.
The struggling Blackhawks will look to build on the positives Saturday afternoon when they conclude a three-game road trip by visiting the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.
Both teams were off Friday after playing in the metropolitan New York area the previous night. The Blackhawks’ furious rally fell short in a 5-4 loss to the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y., while the host Devils skated to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
The Blackhawks endured some familiar third-period woes after the Islanders scored three times in a span of 2:19 to extend their lead to 5-1. But Chicago outshot New York 11-2 the rest of the way and scored three times to pull within a goal after Tyler Bertuzzi tallied twice in the final 70 seconds.
The three goals scored and allowed in the third period tied season highs for the Blackhawks, who have been outscored 39-21 in the final period.
“I thought we did some good things,” Blackhawks interim head coach Anders Sorensen said. “The mental lapses that we had there in the second and in the third, that’s something we have to clean up.”
The Blackhawks have lost six of their last seven despite scoring first in all but one of the games. Overall this season, Chicago has lost 11 games in which it scored first.
“We’re all aware of what we need to do here,” Sorensen said. “It’s just a matter of working through it.”
The Devils worked through things Thursday when their persistence paid off with three unanswered goals over the final 21:04. The win ended a two-game losing streak for New Jersey and halted the Kings’ six-game winning streak.
The Devils were outscored 6-1 in losses to the Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs despite outshooting their foes by a 64-41 margin. They held a 39-17 edge in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
“The more you do good things and good habits, things fall your way,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s just one of those things. I think if you stay with it, eventually it’s going to fall. How our team’s defending and playing that way and not getting discouraged with not scoring — that to me, that’s winning hockey and I’ve been really impressed with our guys’ buy-in in that regard.”
New Jersey outshot the Kings 26-14 on Thursday, when top-liners Ondrej Palat and Jack Hughes helped reward the defensive effort by combining for five points (two goals, three assists).
“We funneled a lot of pucks to the net against the Leafs, too,” Hughes said. “Two good efforts for us and we’d like to finish off the homestand with another good win on Saturday.”
