Boris Katchouk scored in the ninth round of the shootout as the Chicago Blackhawks handed the San Jose Sharks a 2-1 loss at United Center on Tuesday in a game between the NHL’s 31st and 32nd-place teams.
After several failed shootout tries at both ends, Katchouk beat Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood with his attempt, and Filip Zadina couldn’t solve Petr Mrazek at the other end, as the Sharks suffered their third straight loss and finished the road trip with a 1-3-1 record.
Blackwood finished with 24 saves as the Sharks now have 24 points with a 10-31-4 record. Mrazek had 37 saves for the Blackhawks (13-29-2) who are now four points up on San Jose.
Ryan Carpenter’s second of the season at the 5:13 mark of the third period tied the game 1-1.
Matt Hoffman shot the puck around the boards to behind the Blackhawks net, where Justin Bailey was able to collect it and fire a pass to the front of the net to Carpenter, who one-timed a shot past Mrazek.
The goal came just a few minutes after Sharks center Mikael Granlund was knocked out of the game by a shoulder-to-shoulder hit from MacKenzie Entwistle.
Granlund was carrying the puck in the corner to the left of the Sharks net when he was met by Entwistle along the boards. Granlund fell to the ice and remained down for a few moments before he left the game, clutching his right shoulder.
Granlund came into Tuesday as the Sharks’ second-leading scorer behind Tomas Hertl with 29 points in 37 games. He was also second behind Hertl and among all Sharks forwards with an average of 20:41 in ice time per game.
Sharks coach David Quinn after the game said he didn’t have a firm diagnosis on Granlund, but added that it looked like “he might be out a little bit.”
For a while, it looked like the Sharks might get shut out for the second straight game.
Both Luke Kunin and William Eklund hit iron on second-period shots.
Eklund had a loose puck come to him directly in front of the Blackhawks’ net, and with goalie Mrazek out of position, saw nothing but white twine ahead of him. Somehow, though, Eklund’s wrist shot went off the red crossbar instead, and the puck was soon cleared out of harm’s way.
Blackhawks forward Cole Guttman was credited with Chicago’s only goal at the 10:41 mark of the first period.
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The Sharks were under a directive to shoot the puck with more frequency after coach David Quinn felt his team passed up too many opportunities in Monday’s 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
San Jose appeared to have gained some momentum Tuesday after a pair of second-period fights.
Kyle Burroughs laid a hit on Lukas Reichel and was challenged by Guttman. But the more experienced Burroughs landed a couple of hard right hands to decisively win the scrap.
Later in the second, Jarrod Tinordi laid a hit on Justin Baley that Scott Sabourin reacted to. They had a more evenly matched fight, but Sabourin landed some hard shots.
