Chicago Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrázek picked the wrong and right time to see his first action since suffering a groin strain in October.
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The Hawks would’ve been hard-pressed to salvage a point from their 2-1 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings if Mrázek hadn’t been as sharp as he was Thursday, but he admitted he was gassed at one point after enduring an onslaught to close the second period, laying on his side for several seconds when it was all over.
“I needed new lungs there,” said Mrázek, who had 33 saves. “Three minutes left in the second, we couldn’t get out of the zone. That was a tough period of time for us, but we survived and got a point tonight.”
As dialed in as Mrázek was, it was a disheartening finish for the Hawks.
On the Kings’ last rush, Philipp Kurashev turned his back to block a shot by Phillip Danault, but the puck bounced back to Danault and he passed across to Kevin Fiala.
Fiala sniped it past a diving Jake McCabe before Mrázek could even react. The clock at Crypto.com Arena read 1.4 seconds remaining.
Mrázek dropped to his side again — this time in exasperation instead of exhaustion. Or perhaps both.
“We had some chances to finish it, they had them also,” he said. “Especially one second left, that’s tough.”
Said coach Luke Richardson: “It feels like we lost something at the end with a second left on the clock. But it’s a hard-fought road point.”
Richardson said the Hawks looked “sloppy” through the first two periods, particularly in the defensive zone, but “in overtime we had our chances like they did.”
“We feel bad because Petr played real well coming back, and it would’ve been nice to get him the win because he deserved it,” Richardson said. “He really stood strong there. Even in overtime, he had a couple tough chances and stood right in there.”
The Hawks are at 5-5-3 heading into Saturday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks, but they’re 1-3-2 on the road.
“We’re still at .500. — .500 was where we said after the first month was like our base,” Richardson said. “We wanted to grow, but we haven’t really taken that next step. But we haven’t taken a big step down. We’re ready to take that next step.
“Being on the road, we can play a little simpler, and we have to learn from tonight that we can’t turn pucks over in the neutral zone and in the D-zone. In the D-zone, we have to be a little bit better and kill plays and get it going on the offense earlier.
“That’s what our plan is for next game.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
1. It was a ‘tight’ game, but Mrázek looked loose.
Hawks forward Max Domi wasn’t surprised the game turned into a dogfight.
“That’s just L.A.,” he said. “Since I’ve been in the league they’ve always played real tight. They’ve won championships like that.”
Mrázek said he was no worse for wear playing for the first time since Oct. 21.
“I felt good,” he said. “I felt that last week I had a good week of practice. So I was excited to be back and I felt like before.
“I wanted to come earlier to be honest, but I understand the situation with the groin, especially. I’ve been in that situation before and I rushed back and reinjured it, so I’m glad they didn’t.”
Mrázek felt good about his game right away.
“I saw the puck early on really well,” he said. “Lot of good shots, lot of blocks in front of me by guys helping me to see the puck. It’s always important, the first period, to settle, to see the puck, get some pucks and get ready for the next one.”
The Kings tested him early, sending back-to-back shots on goal within the first two minutes.
A minute later, Mrázek slid post-to-post and stretched to deny Brendan Lemieux’s attempt to tuck the puck in the corner after a breakaway.
“When you stop that, you feel even more confident, you feel better in there,” Mrázek said. “I was glad I stopped that one.”
2. The Hawks had a marathon defensive shift, but Alec Regula and Caleb Jones got the worst of it.
Near the end of the second period, the Hawks couldn’t get out of their zone long enough to fully make the long change, so two defensemen were stuck in their own zone.
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Regula had a 4-minute, 11-second shift, and Jones played 3:58.
Of course neither helped his cause by committing turnovers during that stretch.
“He somehow got through it,” Richardson said of Regula. “I don’t know how he did, but we got through it.
“Petr played very well and made some big saves, and guys at times got their sticks and bodies in front of pucks just at the last second. We were in scramble mode a little bit in the second period, but I liked how our third period came.
“It was much better.”
3. Penalties at the worst time are becoming a bad habit.
Richardson has acknowledged it before, but it’s not a state secret: The Hawks don’t possess the kind of offense that can make up for gifting the opposition with a power play right after getting on the scoreboard themselves.
But the Hawks did it again against the Kings.
After going up 1-0 on Taylor Raddysh’s power-play goal — thanks to Jason Dickinson drawing a penalty — Reese Johnson roughed Blake Lizotte 47 seconds later.
The Hawks technically killed the penalty, but Danault scored just after Johnson left the penalty box.
“We talked about it between periods with Reese,” Richardson said. “I love his energy and he was getting in there to protect and go get everyone out of the crease, but we just can’t take that extra shot and take a penalty.
“We killed the penalty off but we didn’t get back into the play, so we were still shorthanded,” he said. “It’s just another growing and learning experience. We talk about it, and some guys get it and some guys might have to go through it themselves.”