Blackhawks 4, Stars 3 (OT) – Recap

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: November 7, 2016

The Blackhawks didn’t have quite the start they had a night ago and ended up surrendering the first goal – a tally by Tyler Seguin on a Dallas power play, the first goal the Blackhawks’ PK unit had given up in four games. Just under eight-and-a-half minutes into the second, Gemel Smith beat Scott Darling on a short-handed breakaway to expand the Dallas lead to two. Just under two minutes later, Patrick Kane would get the Hawks on the board. The 2-1 Dallas lead would hold into the third. With the game being played 4-on-4, the Hawks scored two goals in 55 seconds. First, a great pass by Marian Hossa set up Jonathan Toews for a tap-in. Then Artem Anisimov found the rebound of a Toews shot and put it past Kari Lehtonen. The Hawks would hold the lead until Gemel Smith redirected a John Klingberg shot past Darling for his second of the night with Lehtonen off for the extra attacker and 1:20 on the clock. Neither team would score in the final 80 seconds and we would head to overtime. In overtime, the Hawks had a couple nice looks, but then Kane took a dumb penalty and the Hawks faced a big penalty kill. The defense did a great job taking away shooting lanes and Darling made some brilliant saves, including one that required every bit of his 6’6 frame. With 29 seconds left in OT, a Hossa beat Lehtonen through the five-hole with a screen provided by Anisimov to give the Hawks the extra point.

A few things

Tyler Motte left the game with a lower-body injury. After the game, Q said his status would be clearer in a day or two, but that he might miss some games. I’m pretty good at deciphering Q-speak, but this one’s kinda tricky. Motte did leave the ice under his own power after the injury and Q didn’t say the injury “looked bad” or anything along those lines. However, “some” sounds like he could be out a couple weeks. However however, “might” sounds like Q doesn’t think it’s too bad. Hopefully, Motte’s back sooner rather than later, he’s been very good thus far.
It’s a good thing the PK unit has been playing better, because the Hawks took a few really dumb penalties in this one. Kane spent way too much time in the sin bin and Artemi Panarin‘s trip as the clock ran out in the first would’ve had Andrew Shaw saying “wow, that was stupid.”
Darling played pretty well with Corey Crawford getting the night off. The first goal wasn’t ideal, but the defense was even less ideal there. The breakaway – yeah, could have been better. He could use a little work on those. The tying goal was redirected with a bunch of traffic in front of the net. I said this all last year, but I’d like to see more of Darling so Crawford doesn’t have such a big load to carry during the regular season.

My picks for 3 stars

★★★ Jonathan Toews, C, CHI (1 G, 2 A)

★★ Gemel Smith, C, DAL (2 G)

★ Marian Hossa, RW, CHI (1 G (GWG), 1 A)

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com