"It's like a college hockey atmosphere," said Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews, who played one season at the University of North Dakota and scored a goal. "They got chants going, people standing the whole time, so it's pretty cool to see. It definitely would be fun to have that as your home atmosphere. Obviously, it's something they feed off."
So did the Blackhawks, who wrapped up their preseason schedule with a solid performance in front of a sellout crowd of 14,200. Alex Nylander scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and Patrick Kane had two assists.
Chicago, which went 3-3-1 in the preseason, will depart for Prague, Czech Republic, on Monday ahead of its season opener against the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2019 NHL Global Series at O2 Arena on Friday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN360, NBCSP, NBCSCH).
"I thought it was exactly what we were looking for as far as a test," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "Give a lot of credit to Berlin. They played extremely hard and pushed us, and I thought overall, we played pretty well. Of course, it would've made it easier on us to finish a few of our chances. But in a way it almost worked out for the best because it forced us to grind to get the result."