Nick Foligno scored two goals, and Arvid Soderblom made 38 saves to help the Chicago Blackhawks
stop a five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at United Center on Friday.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Patrick Maroon also scored for the Blackhawks (13-24-2), who played their first game since losing 6-2 to the St. Louis Blues in the Discover NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Tuesday. Connor Bedard had an assist, which extended his point streak to six games (three goals, five assists), setting a career high.
“Huge, huge,” said Foligno, the Chicago captain. “Just for our fans. We left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, ourselves mostly, in how we played in that Winter Classic. We want to make sure we’re proud of the brand of hockey we’re putting out there, and that’s more the Blackhawk brand they’re expecting to see.
We’ll fine-tune it and get a little bit better, but the momentum will hopefully carry over. Yeah, it was big to get one at home ice here. We have a nice little homestand, so let’s take advantage of it.”
Cole Caufield and Emil Heineman scored for Montreal, and Sam Montembeault made 22 saves for the Canadiens (17-18-3), who had won three straight games. Mike Matheson had two assists.
“I feel like we generated a lot, a lot of chances offensively, but he (Soderblom) stood on his head, so you have to give credit where credit’s due,” said Matheson.
Bertuzzi gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 3:21 of the first period during a 5-on-3 power play. He took a pass from Teuvo Teravainen and tapped it in. Chicago went on the power play at 1:58 after Arber Xhekaj was called for tripping, and Jayden Struble was penalized for slashing.
“It was hard to give up a two-minute 5-on-3 because I felt like we were all over them to start the game,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “Then they go on a 5-on-3. They get a goal. But I still felt like after that we were coming.
We scored a big goal at the end of the first. In the second, it would have been nice to separate because I felt like we dominated most of that second period. Just couldn’t get the goal.”
Caufield tied it 1-1 at 18:24 with his 20th goal of the season. He took a pass from Matheson at the goal line, skated out in front, and put a wrist shot past Soderblom’s stick.
Foligno put Chicago ahead 2-1 at 7:05 of the second period when he tipped in Wyatt Kaiser’s point shot.
Soderblom made 19 saves in the second period, including one on Michael Pezzetta from close range at 10:21 and a glove save on Josh Anderson’s wrist shot from the left face-off circle at 10:37. With 11 seconds left in the period, Soderblom used his right pad to stop Nick Suzuki on a one-timer from the bottom of the left circle.
“I like that,” Soderblom said of the heavy workload. “When you get a lot of shots, it’s easy to stay focused and you’re feeling the puck a lot. I don’t mind that. It’s a good feeling for sure.”
Maroon extended the lead to 3-1 at 3:01 of the third period. He took a backhand pass from Ryan Donato and tapped the puck in from the edge of the crease.
Heineman’s power-play goal at 9:45 brought the Canadiens to within 3-2. He scored at the right side of the net, batting in a rebound after Matheson’s shot bounced high off the end boards.
“That was definitely not what I had planned to do by shooting it 10 feet over the net, but he made a great play,” Matheson said.
Foligno restored the two-goal lead for Chicago, making it 4-2 at 15:51 when he jammed in the rebound of Taylor Hall’s shot from the slot.
The game marked the NHL debut of Blackhawks forward Colton Dach. He played against his brother, Kirby Dach, a forward who played for Chicago from 2019-22.
“It was awesome,” said Colton, who had five shots on goal in 11:05 of ice time. “Definitely a little nervous before I went on the ice for warmups, but it was all excitement. Emotions were flying. After that, I just started to play hockey.
“I was just trying to take it all in. All the guys here said, ‘Take your moment (with the pregame rookie lap) and go out there and have fun.’ That’s why I was trying to do.”
Kirby appreciated the special moment despite the loss.
“It’d be better if we had won,” he said. “It was cool. I thought Colton was great. It’s still pretty special. I’m happy that I was kind of around for it.”
