Blackhawks shutout for a third time this season Monday night

CHICAGO – A number of times this year, the man in net for the Hurricanes on Monday has been doing what he can to help another team in Chicago.

But on Monday night, Pyotr Kochetkov was keeping another professional hockey team in the city off the scoreboard.

The goaltender, who has played parts of the last two seasons with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, got his chance to start with the parent club against the Blackhawks at the United Center. Kochetkov made the most of the chance with the Hurricanes as he registered his first NHL shutout in a 3-0 victory.

The goaltender stopped all 27 shots he saw from the hosts in his fifth NHL game and second of the 2022-2023 season. When with the Chicago Wolves early this season, Kochetkov has started five games, posting a 2-2-1 record with a goals against average of three.

While this effort was encouraging for Carolina, it continued the Blackhawks’ issue of finding consistent scoring through the early part of the 2022-2023 season. This could have been expected since five of the team’s eight scorers from last season are no longer on the team.

Monday marked the third time the Blackhawks have been shutout this season and the second in the last four games. Currently, the team is third-to-last in the NHL in scoring as they’ve averaged 2.53 goals per game.

Just generating chances has been an issue at times for the team as their 387 shots on goal in 15 games is second-to-last in the NHL. Again, some of this was expected with a revamped roster aimed at rebuilding, but generating offense remains an issue.

It didn’t help that a goaltender who spends some of his time playing for another Chicago team made that even more difficult on Monday night.