The Blackhawks’ 3-2 victory Saturday against the Senators felt good, but the Senators’ 37-25 advantage in scoring chances told a different story than the final score.
The Hawks yielded too many odd-man rushes, particularly in the second period, and coach Luke Richardson thought rookie defenseman Kevin Korchinski was involved in or responsible for a few too many of them.
In one glaring instance, Korchinski made what Richardson called an ‘‘ill-advised’’ decision to pinch down the boards with the Senators in full possession, allowing Vladimir Tarasenko to spring a counterattack. Goalie Petr Mrazek made the save, but Korchinski was benched for the rest of the second period — more than 11 minutes — as a result.
‘‘[He had] a little tunnel vision, not checking out where [our high forward] was,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘We had given up too many two-on-one [rushes] in the game, so it was just something to let him see. But I thought he reacted well and made some really good passes in the third period, so that’s the growth of a young guy.’’
Richardson also talked to Korchinski about not panicking when a pass gets through him on a two-on-one rush. On the Senators’ first goal, on which Korchinski was the last man back, Tim Stutzle slid a pass across to Claude Giroux. Korchinski then rushed to Giroux, enabling Giroux to slide the puck back over to Stutzle for a tap-in.
‘‘Petr’s going to have one push, and he’ll probably make that save,’’ Richardson explained. ‘‘But he can’t make the push and then push back, so we’ve got to make sure we protect him on the back side.’’
Korchinski ended up logging 13 minutes, 32 seconds of ice time — one second above his season low.
Yes, it’s boring
Forward Joey Anderson can appreciate a defensive style — that’s pretty much his style, after all — but he’s well aware the Hawks’ recent tendency to allow few goals and score even fewer leads to boring hockey.
‘‘Obviously, there’s been a big emphasis on that defensive side of the game,’’ Anderson said. ‘‘I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to run scores up, and we’re probably not going to get into a lot of shootout games where it’s 6-6. So when you realize that, now you have to make sure you’re bearing down defensively and just build out from there.
‘‘It’s just been a hair off coming up the ice, just a half-step out of sync as a group. That has led to a lot of boring play, just ‘meh’ in the middle. We get it out, put it in, they come back out and it gets into a little circle like that. It’s tough to create anything like that.’’
Anderson leads Hawks forwards in five-on-five scoring-chance ratio this season, but his stat line has stagnated at nine points (two goals and seven assists) in 28 games.
Stauber makes history
Goalie prospect Jaxson Stauber became the first goalie in AHL history to post a shutout and score a goal in the same game Friday for Rockford.
With the IceHogs leading the Wolves 3-0 in the final minute, Stauber got control of the puck and shot it 200 feet into an empty net. He then put the finishing touches on a 24-save outing.
It was a highlight in an overall difficult season for Stauber, who now is day-to-day with a strained right hip. He’s 7-7-3 with an .894 save percentage for Rockford.
