![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/CTC-Z-2192538965_217554812.jpg?w=525\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the third straight game and Wyatt Kaiser notched his career first, but the Chicago Blackhawks coughed up five straight goals en route to a 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers at the United Center on Saturday.<\/p>\n
After bouncing back from three straight four-goal losses (including the debacle that was the Winter Classic), the Hawks had stormed back with a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens, only to slink to another four-goal loss to the Blue Shirts.<\/p>\n
Connor Bedard extended his point streak to seven games.<\/p>\n
He made a heady play to set it up, beating Mika Zibanejad to a loose puck and finding Bertuzzi at the doorstep.<\/p>\n
But for the 11th time this season, the Hawks scored an opening goal in the first period only to allow the opponent to score later in the first.<\/p>\n
This time twice, thanks to the Hawks\u2019 failures to break out of their zone or protect the middle.<\/p>\n
Jonny Brodzinski scored from the high slot to put the Rangers on the board with 4 minutes and 48 seconds left in the first.<\/p>\n
Later, the Rangers had the Hawks hemmed in.<\/p>\n Craig Smith and Pat Maroon tried to break the Hawks out of their zone but were both intercepted. Nolan Allan erred by trying to clear a puck up the middle \u2014 straight to Will Borgen, who scored from the point with 1:38 left before intermission.<\/p>\n The Hawks\u2019 second-period lull continued, giving up goals to Filip Chytil, Reilly Smith and Vincent Trocheck.<\/p>\n During the Hawks\u2019 five-game losing streak, the Hawks gave up three goals to the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames, and two goals to the Dallas Stars during the second periods of those games.<\/p>\n Kaiser\u2019s first NHL goal closed out the second with 2 minutes left. Frank Nazar and T.J. Brodie assisted.<\/p>\n The Hawks tried Colton Dach on Bedard\u2019s and Bertuzzi\u2019s line: In the second Dach replaced Ilya Mikheyev on the top line, but it didn\u2019t provide a boost in possession or chances.<\/p>\n The line, in fact, had a 21.4% Corsi-for in five-on-five and trailed 6-0 in scoring chances with Dach, according to Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n Here are three other observations.<\/p>\n Bedard extended his point streak to seven games. At 19 years, 172 days, he\u2019s the third-youngest in franchise history to reach a seven-game point streak or more, trailing only Bobby Hull (18 years, 314 days) and Eddie Olczyk (19 years, 106 days).<\/p>\n Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said, \u201cAny player like that, obviously they want to put points up, but he is really dedicated to the team game as well. A lot of the reasons he\u2019s had some success offensively is because he\u2019s done a lot of good things defensively and being able to get more pucks that way, and been in the right spot to get pucks out of our own zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Petr Mr\u00e1zek returned from a groin injury on Dec. 21 in Calgary, he\u2019s had three starts (getting pulled for Arvid S\u00f6derblom after the first period in Buffalo) with a .779 save percentage and 15 goals against.<\/p>\n S\u00f6derblom has started four games, including Sunday, though he gave up a season-high six goals to the Rangers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s performance-based for sure right now,\u201d Sorensen said. \u201cThe way Arvid played last game, especially in that second period, it was an easy decision to go back to him. And Petr\u2019s been great about it, and he\u2019s ready as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The 6-foot-8 second-year defenseman had a career-high six blocks against the Canadiens and had a neutral rating (0) through his six games leading up to Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cReally good progress in his development,\u201d said Sorensen, who coached him in Rockford. \u201cHe plays really well here in the NHL. His position is really good, his range, killing plays defensively, has been really good, and he\u2019s getting more predictable with pucks too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Chicago Blackhawks coughed up five straight goals en route to a 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers at the United Center on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/CTC-Z-2192543128_217556784.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1\")
1. What\u2019s the \u201cpoint\u201d for Bedard?<\/h4>\n
2. A goalie shakeup?<\/h4>\n
![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/CTC-Z-Rangers-Blackhawks-Hockey_217555450.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1\")
3. Louis Crevier showing up big.<\/h4>\n