Chicago Blackhawks: Dominik Kubalik’s hat trick leads to win
The Chicago Blackhawks were up against one of the best in the league and the rookie scored enough goals to lead them to victory.
The Chicago Blackhawks haven’t had much to boast about this season. One thing that is an exception to that is the play of Dominik Kubalik. He had a hat trick in Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning to lead to a 5-2 victory. It was the first hat trick in Kubalik’s MHL career. He has had a fantastic season and this performance against one of the league’s best teams speaks to that.
Kubalik and the Blackhawks were put into that position to win thanks to the play of Corey Crawford. He was outstanding in the goal for Chicago once again. The team didn’t really do him any favors as they let the Lightning put 39 shots on goal and Crawford saved 37 of them. Crawford was brilliant and the rest of the team was able to capitalize on that.
It was the first time that Chicago had won in the Amalie Arena in 11 years. It also ends an eight-game losing streak to the Lightning overall. Things haven’t gone well against them since defeating them in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Finally, a couple of strong performances allowed them to get that big win. Tampa Bay is one of the elite teams in the league so this had to feel good for the players on the Blackhawks team.
Kubalik was already in the conversation for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie. One of Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks or Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche is going to win it, but there is a pretty fun race for that final nomination. He now has 29 goals as a rookie which is just a remarkable number. There haven’t been that many rookies in Chicago Blackhawks history to reach the 30 goal plateau. He has been fun to watch this season.
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Kubalik and the Blackhawks are back in action on Saturfay night when they visit an old friend. Joel Quenneville‘s Florida Panthers are in a serious playoff fight. They are right on the cusp but they need to play very well in almost every game for the rest of the season. It is going to be veryy tough for Chicago to play against them. The Panthers are a hungry team right now that will be bringing a desperate game.