It may be a battle of the Western Conference’s two homers, but the Chicago Blackhawks and host San Jose Sharks will head into Thursday’s game on a positive note.
The Blackhawks snapped a four-game losing streak against the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Monday, while the Sharks snapped a five-game losing streak against the Los Angeles Kings 4-2. on tuesday.
In fact, the Sharks won back-to-back games – claiming a 5-4 overtime victory at the Utah Hockey Club on Monday in Salt Lake City – after starting the season without a win in the first nine games.
“A win is a win. It doesn’t matter where you are. We want to win hockey games here,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “(I’m proud of) the guys (Tuesday) for the comeback effort, the way we worked, the way we showed up, and the way we worked it had to look. We’re proud of the team.”
To say it’s been an uphill battle for the Sharks, who sit in last place in the Pacific Division, would be an understatement. After finishing bottom of the league in the 2023-24 campaign, hopes were high that they had hit the tail and could turn the corner. Instead, they struggled out of the blocks.
However, spirits are high thanks to two victories, and probably no one is feeling better than Jake Walman. The guard hit one three-pointer against the Kings after collecting three assists in Utah the night before.
“I think we can all contribute. We’ve all done it individually in the past,” Walman said. “Whenever we can help the forwards, the big thing is to face them. We have a lot of good players.”
Chicago, which defeated the Sharks 4-2 in the season opener on Oct. 17, is playing the third game of a five-game road trip that will conclude with a clash between the two Southern California clubs.
Beating the Avalanche to finally snap their swing was a big boost for the Blackhawks, who had been on the wrong side of the game for the past few games.
“I think we deserved what we got (Monday), and there was a night we probably didn’t deserve for the end,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We could have easily won a few more, and I think this team and the whole organization is tired of moral victories. So, (this win) was a really big step for us to take a real victory and put it in our minds about how to do it.”
Chicago was the better team in the first half against Colorado and took advantage. Ryan Donato scored his first of two goals late in the opening frame to make it 3-1.
And if his offensive contributions weren’t enough, Donato — along with teammates Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev — kept Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon (one power-play goal) in reasonable check.
“There’s been a lot of times in the last few games where we feel like we’ve played really well, and five minutes into the game they’re back in the game. We just find a way to not finish it,” Donato said.
“I think we all went into the locker room after the second (period) and said it’s not good enough, we have to step up. There’s not much we can say other than do the job, and that’s kind of what happened.”
Chicago enters Thursday’s game tied with Nashville at the bottom of the Central Division.
–Field Level Media
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