Two young teams faced off at the United Center on Sunday night. The Blackhawks and Ducks were in very different places early in their respective seasons: the Ducks were playing just their fifth game of the year and beginning a five-game, nine-day road trip. The Blackhawks were playing their seventh game in 12 days to open the new season.
The play in the first two periods was sloppy. There were lots of bad passes, whiffs on hit and shot attempts and good saves when needed. Neither team had a goal on the board, which meant the Blackhawks were in another close game in the third period — the sixth time in seven games that’s been their reality.
After the play favored the Ducks heavily in the second period, the Blackhawks pushed back early in the third and were able to get on the board first. Unfortunately, Wyatt Kaiser sent a puck into the stands with 1:47 left in regulation, giving Anaheim a power play. The Ducks pulled their goalie and were able to tie the game with 35.8 remaining.
Ryan Donato won it in overtime!
Star 1: Spencer Knight
Knight was tested early and often, stopping 16 shot sin the first period and seven more in the second. He had to be sharp because the puck was bouncing and the passing wasn’t great from either team. He stopped the first 35 shots he faced, and I’m not sold he had a great look at the tying goal in the final minute of regulation.
Star 2: Frank Nazar
Nazar won three of four faceoffs in the first period and blocked one shot. He won three of five draws in the second period, blocked a second shot and picked up a hit in the box score. At the end of regulation, Nazar had won 8 of a team-high 15 faceoffs in 19:53.
GOAL: Frank Nazar scores off Kaiser's one-timer that rang off the post pic.twitter.com/VIveHxtmO6
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) October 20, 2025Star 3: Sam Rinzel
This was probably the most physical game I’ve seen from Rinzel this season. He had a huge, old fashioned hip check in the neutral zone about seven minutes into the third period for his loudest contact of the night, but he was hitting early and often — not something we associate with his game (yet). Rinzel led the team with four hits thru two periods and added two hits to that in the third. He skated 21:32 in regulation.
Key Takeaways
Both teams opted to skate seven defensemen and 11 forwards tonight. Collectively, I was impressed with the patience and composure from the Blackhawks defensemen tonight. There were a handful of times they could have tried to hastily clear the puck out of the zone and might have not made it beyond the blue line. Instead, they collected the puck and patiently skated away from traffic before moving the puck. The maturing taking place with the Blackhawks’ defensemen in real time is impressive. At the end of 20 minutes, the Blackhawks had successfully killed two penalties and won 58 percent of the faceoffs (7 of 12). The Ducks out-shot the Blackhawks 16-10 and killed one Chicago power play. The best scoring chances for the Blackhawks in the first came from Ilya Mikheyev (a short-handed breakaway) and Landon Slaggert. The Ducks dominated the puck for most of the second period before a parade of penalties made things sloppy in the final six minutes. Anaheim had a 6-1 advantage in High Danger Chances in the second period but had nothing to show for it. Connor Bedard was credited with three of the Blackhawks’ ten shots on net in the first period. His expected Goals For percentage was 80.35 in the first, which was second on the team behind Tyler Bertuzzi (86.47). He was up to six shots on net (of the Blackhawks’ 16) by the end of the second period, but his xGF% was down to 57.19 — which was now third on the team behind Connor Murphy and Bertuzzi. I really liked Colton Dach‘s game tonight. I thought he was physical and offensive. He attacked the puck and worked with a lot of different forwards thanks to the Hawks skating only 11. According to the scoreboard at the United Center, he was the Blackhawks’ fastest skater in the first two periods with a burst of 22.6 mph.Hence then, the article about blackhawks 2 ducks 1 ot three stars key takeaways was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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