VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Blackhawks have played with scrappiness and gotten solid goaltending but been unable to produce enough offense to win on the road for months now.
All of that remained the case Monday in a 2-0 defeat to the Canucks — their 17th consecutive road loss and their second consecutive shutout road loss.
“There’s no reason why we can’t score on the road if we’re scoring at home,” Nick Foligno said. “That, to me, is a mindset [thing].”
The first-place Canucks did all their damage in the game’s first seven minutes, exploiting the Hawks’ short-lived third defensive pair of Isaak Phillips and Louis Crevier for a back-door goal by Pius Suter and a nifty top-shelf snipe by Quinn Hughes.
The two teams essentially played to a stalemate for the remaining 53 minutes, which was admirable by the Hawks — given the talent disparity — but perfectly satisfactory for the Canucks with a two-goal lead.
The Hawks finished with a 31-29 edge in shots on goal, marking the first time they’ve outshot a home team since Nov. 30. But they were unable to dent Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko, finished 0-for-5 on the power play, wasted 27 solid saves by Petr Mrazek and still haven’t won outside of Chicago since Nov. 9.
Coach Luke Richardson said he was happy with his team’s determination and thought it would be unwise to change things tactically in the third period despite the scoreline.
“We had some good looks on the power play,” Richardson said. “[Colin Blackwell] had a breakaway near the end that really would have sparked us, and [he] just missed.
“If we opened up anything to go up and down the ice, I think they’re just waiting for that. That’s what they did to the Maple Leafs last game; they just ate them up in the third period by doing that. We were patient, playing our game, and it gave us a chance to score some goals. Unfortunately, we’re just not finding that finish right now.”
Foligno logged 19:09 of ice time, during which he took one dumb penalty but tallied a team-high seven shots on goal. Reese Johnson added five shots on goal in his most noticeable game in a while.
