Chicago Blackhawks prospect Samuel Savoie suffered a lower-body injury during the a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild in a preseason game Saturday night in St. Paul, Minn.

After the game, Hawks coach Luke Richardson had no immediate update and said Savoie was being evaluated.

[ [Don’t miss] 5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks preseason opener, including Connor Bedard’s ‘unbelievable pass’ on the winning overtime goal ]

“He’s in a little bit of pain, so we’re hoping the best for him,” Richardson said.

The Hawks said Sunday morning that Savoie remains in Minnesota getting treatment.

“That’s tough,” center Tyler Johnson said. “He’s a kid that even last year I really, really liked. I love the way he plays. Just happy-go-lucky guy.

“So anytime you see something like that, that’s pretty gruesome and you never wish that on anybody. Luckily when he was moving there, he seemed like he was in better spirits. Hopefully he’s all right.”

Savoie, a third-round pick in 2022, is valued by Hawks management as a scrappy forward in the mold of Andrew Shaw.

With about 2 1/2 minutes left in the third period, Savoie appeared to be lining up Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski for a check or trying to beat him to a loose puck when he lost his edge and crashed legs first into the boards.

Savoie lay flat on the ice, and his screams could be heard during the television broadcast. A hush fell over Xcel Energy Center while a stretcher was brought onto the ice.

Savoie lay on his side and gave fist bumps to Hawks teammates and Wild players as he was carted off to the crowd’s applause.

“He’s a very gregarious young man, he’s really well-liked, so that was a good relief for us to see that for sure,” Richardson said.

In other injury news, forward Philipp Kurashev missed practice with a left wrist injury.

“He just got banged up in (Thursday’s preseason) game” against the St. Louis Blues, Richardson said. “Hopefully it’s nothing.”

During Saturday’s game, the Wild had the Hawks on their heels for stretches, but the visitors struck at a couple of opportune times.

They bookended regulation with quick scores — an opening goal from MacKenzie Entwistle that came 1 minute, 6 seconds into the first and a tying goal from Johnson with 1:03 left in the third.

But the Wild shut the door just as quickly. In overtime, Connor Dewar beat Hawks goalie Arvid Söderblom 21 seconds after winning the opening faceoff.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

Entwistle averaged 10 minutes, 23 seconds of ice time at even strength as a fourth-liner last season, but he faces much more competition in camp with an influx of veteran forwards ahead of him and prospects over his shoulder.

He has been aggressive in camp, scoring first in Monday’s scrimmage and again Saturday against the Wild.

“I’ve talked about it before: There’s a lot of a guys here for a few spots,” Entwistle said after the game. “You’ve got to impress every night and it’s a preseason game. You’ve got to treat it like a game and everyone’s trying to earn their spot.”

He also has been working on his shot: “Just trying to get it off quicker.”

Earlier this week, Richardson singled out Entwistle and linemates Boris Katchouk and Joey Anderson.

“They forecheck hard, they don’t let you breathe,” he said. “Some of the clips we showed on our forecheck this year was that line because they did that well, so they have to continue.

“It’s going to be competitive for everybody, but the good thing is they’ve been around the team. People come and go and win jobs and lose jobs, so they have a little bit of that in their back pocket.”

Korchinski has made strides — he topped all Hawks in ice time Saturday at 22:26 — but he has to get stronger and show more awareness.

He put on weight this summer, but he occasionally got pushed off the puck by Wild forecheckers.

And he had a big slip-up when he was a tick slow retrieving the puck behind Söderblom’s net and allowed Sammy Walker to swoop in, steal the puck and pass to Adam Beckman for a tip-in.

During camp, Richardson noted Korchinski’s tendency to skate out of position defensively or come up into the offensive zone too quickly, something the coach attributed to Korchinski being a smooth and naturally fast skater.

Seth Jones talked about Korchinski’s progress in camp Monday: “He’s a smart player. He’s going to figure that out for himself, like a lot of young guys do.

“Everyone still has bad shifts, bad turnovers, things like that, trying to do stuff with the puck. It’s how you bounce back from it.”

Dach, who played right wing on a line with Savoie and Paul Ludwinski, hopes his performance Saturday moves the needle with management, whether or not that means getting called up to Chicago at some point this season.

He doesn’t feel like he has done so in camp.

“The two rookie games were pretty good,” he said before Saturday’s game. “I’ve kind of been a little frustrated with myself in the practices here. And this game is going to be a big step for me. I want to show them that I can play in the NHL.”

Richardson has said Dach needs to play more physically and use his skills on both ends of the ice. And Dach wanted to create more offense.

“Sometimes the puck doesn’t want to go in,” he said, “but I’ve just got to compete and battle more and things will go my way.”

Dach didn’t register a point Saturday, but he was in great position for a tip-in if Johnson’s tying goal had been blocked. Dach took four shots.

Phillips hasn’t stood out much in camp, but then again Wyatt Kaiser has outshined most of the young blue liners.

But on Saturday, Phillips’ first preseason action, he had a secondary assist on Enwtistle’s goal, so that’s something. He got the puck up the wall to Katchouk, who batted it to Entwistle as he was streaking through the neutral zone and Entwistle took care of the rest.

However it went, there’s no rush for Phillips.

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“He’s a guy who’s going to find his way in this league,” Richardson said. “He’s a big guy, needs to play physical.

“He’s a good skater, but he can’t just skate around and be a good skater. He has to be able to move, close quick and separate them from the puck. It has to be every shift.”

Richardson extended condolences to the United States Hockey League club on behalf of the Hawks for the loss of assistant general manager Mike Fazio.

“We’re thinking of them all and we just wanted to send that out,” Richardson said.

Fazio, a Bartlett native, died Thursday after a battle with testicular cancer, according to the Steel. He was 31.

The former forward played for a number of North American Hockey League teams, including the Chicago Hitmen in 2011-12.

Originally Published: Oct 01, 2023 at 10:15 am