Recap: Blackhawks defeat Stars 4-3 to start 2026

The Hawks’ lead was short-lived, as Mikko Rantanen answered less than three minutes later, tying the score at 1-1.

Second period

The Hawks started the second period on power play after delayed penalty on Nils Lundkvist. The Hawks wasted little time cashing in on the power play for a 2-1 advantage.

The Hawks continued to dominate the second period when Ilya Mikheyev donned his superman cape for a 3-1 lead.

The Hawks ended a dominant second period with a two-goal lead.

Third period

Early in the third period, Mikheyev fired a shot on net. The shot squirted through Jake Oettinger’s pads for the goal.

The Stars did not go quietly into the night. Jason Robertson scored with under four minutes to play. With less than 20 second left to play, Matt Duchene potted a goal to cut the lead further, but the Hawks held on for a 4-3 victory.

Analysis

Despite the close final score, the Hawks dominated the majority of this game. The Hawks got great games from Tyler Bertuzzi, Mikheyev, Levshunov and Alex Vlasic. In the closing seconds of the game, Mikheyev missed an empty-netter. That would have been his first NHL hat trick.

The Hawks are finally finding out how to play winning hockey without Connor Bedard.

Another unsugn hero of tonight’s victory was Ryan Greene. While Greene is still not scoring at a great clip, he is finding ways to contribute. Greene won 62.5% of his faceoffs in the victory.

Knight enjoyed another solid effort in the net. He stopped 21 of 24 shots for the victory.

The Hawks now have points in three of their last four games. The Hawks’ next game will Saturday against the Washington Capitals. The game will be at 6 p.m. CST.