Just when it seemed like Petr Mrazek’s goaltending had fallen back to earth, the Blackhawks veteran rediscovered his absolute top form this week.
Mrazek stopped 38 of 39 shots Saturday, guiding the Hawks to a 3-1 win over the Blues just two days after recording his first shutout in three years.
“I just saw the puck really well, especially early,” Mrazek said. “I had the breakaway in the first minute in the first period, and that gets you going. And like I said two days ago, when you see the puck early, it makes the game a little easier.”
The Hawks earned consecutive wins for the first time all season, improved to 4-1-1 in their last six home games and also snapped a four-game home losing streak against the rival Blues.
Mrazek had allowed three or more goals in seven consecutive starts entering the week, dropping his save percentage back to normal after an excellent October. He hadn’t been a team weakness by any means, but he hadn’t been able to overcome the regularly shoddy defense in front of him, either.
Starting halfway through a blowout loss Sunday against the Wild, however, something flipped. He stopped each of the final 10 shots he faced in that game, then all 37 shots he faced Thursday in a 1-0 win over the Ducks. From puck drop on Saturday, he seemed to be reading the puck extremely well.
His season save percentage now stands at .912 — an impressive number on this Hawks team. As a pending unrestricted free agent at season’s end, he could become an intriguing option in the goalie-starved trade market or, alternatively, earn another contract with the Hawks.
Offensively, Nikita Zaitsev tallied two assists — including a beautiful pass to Jason Dickinson for a second-period tap-in — and Anthony Beauvillier scored his first goal since the trade.
Korchinski has family matter
The Hawks moved rookie defenseman Kevin Korchinski onto the non-roster list because he’s away from the team to attend to a family matter, Richardson said. Isaak Phillips was called back up from Rockford and slotted alongside Seth Jones on Saturday, although the ‘D’ pairs rotated regularly throughout the game.
Korchinski’s absence is unrelated to the world junior championships, which start Dec. 26 in Sweden. He has two goals and seven assists in 25 games this season.
“He’s just starting to scratch the surface of his ability,” coach Luke Richardson said. “Definitely we’re going to miss him, but we wish him all the best.”
The 19-year-old native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, nearly produced the biggest highlight of his career to date Thursday, racing down the right wing and cutting to the net for a high-danger scoring chance that was barely thwarted.
“We want to promote that for him when it’s his chance to go,” Richardson said. “It’s the best part of his game, his skating ability and [ability to] create offense. He’s shown a couple of those this year. And it’d be great to add [chances like that] in once a period — or maybe twice a period, if it presents itself like it did there — and not be so eager to pass off and bail out.”
Vlasic activating, too
Fellow rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic has also been more active jumping into rushes and getting involved offensively in recent games.
Richardson reviewed some video clips with Vlasic in which he skated 180 feet or so — the length of the ice — to get involved in a rush, but then made a poor decision with the puck at the final moment, negating his positive impact.
On one play Tuesday against the Predators, however, Vlasic jumped into the rush, executed a give-and-go with Nick Foligno and circled around the net with the puck — a play which eventually led to a Dickinson goal.