In Chicago, the San Jose Sharks continued their losing ways with a 2-1 loss to the Blackhawks after penalties on Tuesday night. 
The skills competition went nine rounds before mercifully coming to an end.
Petr Mrazek made 37 saves in the win.
“Yeah, it’s fun,” Mrazek said. “I like shootouts. I didn’t even know it was nine [rounds]. I stopped counting after six or seven because I was hoping someone was going to score.
“I’ve been feeling good, playing a lot of games. Like I said before, being healthy and focusing on just hockey, it’s fun. Playing every game puts you in the game.”
He made eight stops in the skills portion of the evening’s affairs.
“He’s been great all year for us, not just us, but I mentioned before, he talks to guys on the bench,” Richardson said. “Even in the shootout, he was talking about who was going. Most goalies get in their own world, they don’t want to talk, they want to focus on their own thing. But he wants information, and he gives information to our defensemen, especially, and then he’s got energy and he’s good.”
Boris Katchouk was credited with the deciding marker on penalties.
Chicago moved to 13-29-2.
The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead midway through the opening stanza on a power play strike by Cole Guttman.
“Yeah, obviously been working hard on the power play, especially this last week,” Guttman said. “Been struggling a little bit obviously. In order to win games, you’ve got to put the puck in the net on the power play. So, just good puck movement, good recoveries and obviously a lucky bounce there. But it comes from hard work.”
The Sharks dropped to 10-31-4 off their 15th loss in 16 games.
“I thought we played well,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “I thought we had a lot of Grade A [chances]. I thought we played well. We played hard. We’ve been having a hard time scoring goals here the last few days. But if we play like that, the pucks will eventually end up going in.”
The Sharks forced extra time at 5:13 of the third period when Ryan Carpenter scored off a face off win in the Chicago zone.
“He’s (Justin Bailey) so fast,” Carpenter said. “He works so hard. A guy goes in and wins a battle. I thought their [defenseman] pretty much had the puck, and he goes and takes it from him and sets me up. He’s the guy who sets up the entire play. I think, most people, you notice him on the ice, his speed, but not only his speed but how hard he works.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves in the loss.
“Without question, when you play with emotion and passion, you’re just a better hockey player and a hockey team,” Quinn said. “Losing can take that away from you. That can really weigh on you. I think that’s kind of what’s happened here over the last few weeks. But tonight, we had it. We had passion. We had enthusiasm. You could see it in our play. It carried over in all three zones. It carried over defensively, and it carried over offensively even though we didn’t score goals.”
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