Another bad call factors into Blackhawks' disappointing loss to Wild

For the third time in the last five games, the Chicago Blackhawks got out to a 2-0 lead and still lost. The Minnesota Wild fought back to win the game 4-3 in overtime. The Blackhawks played the best 39 minutes that they have played in ages, but they couldn't close it out.

The Blackhawks opened up a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Jason Dickinson and Connor Bedard. They thought Tyler Bertuzzi gave them a three-goal lead, but it was taken off the board for being offside after a successful coach’s challenge. The Wild got on the board in the final minute of the middle frame with a Brock Faber goal that changed direction multiple times.

After the Wild tied the game early in the third period, Artyom Levshunov gave the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead with his first career goal. Unfortunately, Minnesota tied the game a few minutes later and won it thanks to a gift power play in overtime.

 “Tonight, we lacked a little bit of poise with the puck in the third,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “You have to skate yourself out of pressure and make tape-to-tape passes, and because of that, I thought we were a little bit on our heels.

“Part of the learning process is to find a way to make sure there’s no way to lose that game. We played too good to lose it.”

Blueliners Get the Message

Before the game, Blashill said he wanted his team to create more chaos by shooting the puck more, especially from the blueline.

“When we’ve been good, our d-men have been shooting, and it’s created chaos,” he said. “Again, against a team like this, it’s hard to get them out of structure. So, the only way to do it is when you shoot it, you create that chaos.”

Entering tonight’s contest, the Blackhawks had four defensemen with at least 20 5-on-5 shots on goal. Matt Grzelcyk led the way with 27, the sixth most on the team. Sam Rinzel had 24, Louis Crevier 21, and Levshunov 20.

The defensemen got the message as Kaiser had two shots on goal in the first 16 seconds of the game. The Blackhawks bombarded the Wild with 20 shots on goal and 31 shot attempts in the opening frame. The blueliners combined for nine shots on goal and 14 shot attempts.

At the end of the night, the Blackhawks’ seven defensemen had a goal, an assist, and 14 of the team’s 37 shots on goal.

When the Lev-ee Breaks

Levshunov was dynamite against the Wild. He finally scored his first goal of the season by making a play most defensemen wouldn’t. Instead of shooting right after receiving the pass from Bedard, he continued to drive the net before putting a backhander past Filip Gustavsson.

"His heart rate has to be 25 or 30 during the game,” Bedard said of Levshunov. “Seeing some of the plays he makes where he's under pressure and he's never rushing and never panicked; that's not something you can teach someone to do. Either you have it, or you don't. He has it."

Levshunov finished with three shots on goal on seven attempts. He was centimeters away from a hat trick as he hit the post in the first period and again moments after his goal. He looked confident with the puck and made some solid defensive plays to prevent scoring chances. He didn’t have any of those moments that make you grab your chest, either.

In his 12:43 of 5-on-5 ice time, the Blackhawks outshot the Wild 11-3, and had an 8-3 advantage in scoring chances, without giving up a high-danger scoring chance.

So Tired of the Ref Show

The Blackhawks have had too many calls go against them this season. Being an NHL referee is a difficult job. Things happen very fast, and it’s easy to miss a penalty or get caught up in the heat of the moment. There were a few plays where the Blackhawks got away with an infraction, but the interference call on Ilya Mikheyev in overtime was unacceptable.

An obviously frustrated Blashill frankly said it wasn’t interference after the game. Joel Eriksson Ek has the puck when Mikheyhev goes in for the hit, and it’s still at his feet when he makes contact. That is not interference. The call was made because referee Furman South thought it was retaliation for the hard hit on Bedard.

"If I were to climb into Furman’s mind, he thought Mikky just went over and hit him because he hit Connor,” Blashill said. “But the reality is, right before Eriksson Ek got hit, he had the puck. It's not interference."

Bedard took the high road after the game, admitting he didn’t see the play because he was recovering from the hit he absorbed.

“We’re not going to blame the refs. They’ve got a job to do, and it’s not always easy for them.”

That’s a call that cannot be made in overtime. It came after the referees refused to call a penalty when Bedard was taking down on a late third-period power play. At least they got in their “chucking knucks” penalty call. Nobody is paying money to see the officials. Stop trying to have a viral moment and start focusing on getting the calls right.

There is no conspiracy against the Blackhawks, but they have been subject to some awful officiating. I am sick and tired of calls taking away from this team's otherwise positive efforts. This is a league-wide problem that needs to be addressed.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• With a goal and an assist, Bedard now has 10 multi-point games this season, with six coming in the last 10 games. He also went 7-for-14 at the faceoff dot as he continues to improve in that area. Let’s take a second to marvel at Rinzel’s assist on his goal.

• Two points in the last four games stinks, especially when the Blackhawks probably deserve six. These are hard lessons every young team has to learn to win. This group has taken huge strides this season, but they still have more to go. They will figure out how to close out these types of games. Hopefully, sooner rather than later. And when they do, they will be climbing up the standings. The fact that they came back and regained the lead after blowing the 2-0 lead means they aren’t folding like teams of the past few years. They just need to learn to close. It’s coming.

• Speaking of the standings, the Blackhawks are two points out of a playoff spot on Thanksgiving. If I told you this is where they’d be on opening night, every single one of you would have thought I was crazy. That’s what makes these losses annoying and frustrating, because these games mean more than they have in the past. That’s exciting.