RECAP: Blackhawks Fall in Vegas, 3-1

The Blackhawks dropped their penultimate game of the season on Thursday night, falling 3-1 in Vegas to the Golden Knights. 

Chicago and Vegas were deadlocked in a scoreless game until late in the second -- Brayden McNabb opened the scoring with under five minutes to play and Michael Amadio added an insurance tally near the midpoint of the third. Jason Dickinson got Chicago on the board late in the game to make it a 2-1 game, but Nicolas Roy put home an empty-netter to seal the win.

QUICK HITS

• Petr Mrazek put forth another strong late-season outing, making 20 straight stops on the night before Brayden McNabb put home a rebound chance through traffic for the game's opening goal. He finished the night with 32 stops on 34 shots (.941 SV%).
• Jason Dickinson snapped a five-game pointless skid with his 22nd tally of the season. 
• Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev notched their 39th and 36th assists on the season, respectively, on Dickinson's tally, adding to their team-leading helper totals. 
• Just weeks ago Big Ten collegiate opponents, rookies Frank Nazar and Landon Slaggert skated together, along with Joey Anderson, on the Blackhawks third line on Thursday night, arguably Chicago's most productive forward trio at even strength across the night.
• Nick Foligno led all Chicago skaters with four shots on goal on the night. 

THEY SAID IT

• "Tonight, we only get one. It's hard to win with just one goal. I think a lot of problems are solved when you score three or four. It could be a different game." - Seth Jones on team's scoring troubles. 
• "It's always difficult to say (why goals didn't go in) when you get the chances -- sometimes they don't and sometimes they don't. We've just got to -- obviously, there's only one game left, but not get discouraged and know that better days ahead. If we keep on creating like that, eventually we're going to start scoring and I always say that when you score, they always come in bunches. Hopefully, we can do that for last game of the year and carry it into next season." - Ryan Donato on offensive struggles down the stretch. 
• "They're big and they're heavy. I thought the first period, we had really good chances on our forecheck and then second period, we weren't as good getting through the neutral zone, so not as much time and the third period much more. I liked our push on the third is some good O-zone time, but you know, that's what the [Vegas netminder Logan] Thompson made his best saves." - Head coach Luke Richardson on loss to Vegas.

GAME LINKS

• Game Summary
• Full Box Score
• Highlights

WHAT'S NEXT

The Blackhawks close out their 2023-24 season on Thursday night in LA.

POSTGAME VIDEO