Another slow start, another strong finish
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — The beginning was a disaster for the Blackhawks. The ending was a stunner.
It involved another two-goal rally — fast becoming their calling card — with three goals by defensemen and one big 3-2 upset of the Ducks on Saturday night to close out the California trip with three points.
“Sometimes it seems like we take a little while to get into it, but as this league gets going, you’re not going to have a chance to climb back into these games,” coach Luke Richardson said.
The Hawks haven’t looked slow and outclassed under Richardson that often, but that certainly would describe all but the last five minutes of the first period at the Honda Center.
“We had good touches with the puck,” the Ducks’ Adam Henrique said. “Our first 15 minutes of the game were great.”
The Ducks’ Trevor Zegras burned the Hawks out of the gate with a below-the-goal-line pass to Troy Terry, and — bang — down 1-0 just 19 seconds into the game.
It was 6 ½ minutes in before the Hawks got their first shot on goal — essentially a well-aimed dump-in by Reese Johnson — and the Ducks took 18 of the first 19 shots on goals. By then, the Hawks were down 2-0 after Henrique scored in the first.
But then Jarred Tinordi happened.
With six minutes left in the first, the Hawks defenseman took a seam pass from Max Domi, dragged it around Anthony Stolarz’s slide to the near post and dropped it in on a backside backhander.
Then with 2 minutes, 42 seconds left in the third, Tinordi’s blast from the left point pinballed between Dmitry Kulikov and Stolarz and into the net. It was Tinordi’s first career multi-goal game. Heck, it’s his first multi-goal season — doubling his career output in one night.
In between those goals, young defenseman Filip Roos scored his first NHL goal, knotting the score at 2-2 in the second period.
“It went pretty fast, but it’s always fun to score, especially this one,” Roos said. “A dream come true.”
Despite an abysmal start and getting outshot 41-22, the Hawks seem to have a knack for hanging around. And if you let them hang around, they might hang a loss on you.
“Rope-a-doped them again,” Richardson said with a smile.
Tinordi added: “We’ve had great goaltending. That’s kind of been the storyline.”
With 39 saves Arvid Söderblom came to the rescue Saturday, especially during a 19-shot first period.
“We had a super-bad start today. They came out much hungrier than us,” Söderblom said. “We picked it up a little bit with like five minutes left in the (first) period and then we started to play better. But, yeah, we got two points and that’s the takeaway from today.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Kane snapped a three-game point drought with two assists.
“He was really going tonight,” Richardson said. “He hit the post on the empty net, but I thought he could have had another goal or two.”
Here are two takeaways from the win:
1. Jarred Tinordi must be quite fond of The Ponda. Tinordi came into the game with two goals in his career, the latter of which came last January at the Honda Center — nicknamed “The Ponda” — when he played for the Rangers.
“Last year I had a lucky bounce like that in this building, too, so maybe it’s the building that’s got me some good vibes out there,” he said.
The goal also seemed to snap the Hawks out of their early funk.
“He had a great game for us,” Richardson said. “He was the only one that was really into the game, other than our goaltender, early.”
Tinordi added: “You never want to start the game down 2-0, and if you can get one after that it gets you feeling good, gets you moving in the right direction. It was nice to get on the board and we can breathe a little bit.
“You know, a one-goal game sounds a lot better than a two-goal game.”
2. Filip Roos showed off his ‘Swedish Swag’ and scored his first NHL goal. The Hawks have been high on Roos since training camp, and he validated that faith Saturday, flashing a range of skills in the sequence leading up to his first career goal.
Domi blocked a Zegras slapper and shoveled it to Roos. Roos alertly stretch-passed to Kane, who dished it back to Roos as he quickly caught up.
Roos fired at Ducks goalie Stolarz, who blocked it, but Roos never stopped his stride and planted his rebound into the back of the net.
“I got a good pass from Domester and, yeah, it worked out pretty well,” said Roos, who held the puck while posing for a picture with his father in the locker room.
“We were all super pumped for him,” Tinordi said. “I was just telling him it took me like 105 games or something like that to get my first one.” (Actually it was 61 for Tinordi.)
Roos’ first goal came in his eighth career game.
Connor Murphy joked last week that Roos — a Gothenburg, Sweden, native — has “Swedish Swag,” a mix of style and confidence Swedish-born players seem to have, in Murphy’s estimation.
So that would apply to Gothenburg native Söderblom too.
“I haven’t talked about it, but I think we bring some swag, me and Arvid in here,” Roos said.
“Me and Roosie? I don’t know,” Söderblom said. “I think both me and Rooster are calm guys, kind of chill guys. Calm and confident too. That’s a good thing to have as a young player.”