Blackhawks Survive Late Islanders Push, Soderblom & Lardis Shine in 4-3 Win
Despite getting outshot 23-5 over the final 20 minutes, the Chicago Blackhawks (27-31-13) hung on to defeat the New York Islanders (40-27-5) 4-3 on Tuesday at UBS Arena, kicking off their four-game East Coast road trip on a high note. While all the attention, from a Blackhawks perspective, at least, was on 2025 No. 3 overall pick Anton Frondell for his NHL debut, it was backup goaltender Arvid Soderblom who stole the show on Tuesday in Long Island.
Thanks to a sensational effort from Soderblom, who stopped 44 of 47 shots faced and was credited with 2. 60 goals saved above expected, the Blackhawks survived a scary third-period push from an Isles squad that’s fighting for its playoff lives. Ahead 4-1 entering the second intermission, the Blackhawks made the critical mistake of sitting back and trying to drain out the clock in the final frame, which nearly cost them the win.
Even with a remarkably young group in the locker room, they still should know better by now. Especially against a team as desperate as New York. Fortunately, Soderblom has faced plenty of rubber recently and didn’t seem to be overwhelmed by the onslaught he saw late in the game.
After facing a whopping 49 shots in Friday’s loss to Colorado, where he made 45 saves, Soderblom stepped up and single-handedly got his team across the line against the Islanders. While Simon Holmstrom and Calum Ritchie snuck the puck by him in the third period, cutting Chicago’s lead to only one, Soderblom made more than a few high-caliber saves to secure the victory. In the end, stopping 21 of 23 shots in the period was enough to get the job done.
In his last two outings, Soderblom has now faced 96 total shots and stopped 89 of them. That gives him a . 927 save percentage during this mini-stretch, in which he’s also totaled 3.
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