The Chicago Blackhawks had a tough loss to the San Jose Sharks on their minds coming into their Saturday afternoon matchup against the Los Angeles Kings.
Of course, the Kings are a stronger team so beating them would take a much better effort to beat them.
Things didn’t start well for Chicago. Alex Laferriere scored a goal in consecutive periods to make it a 2-0 lead for Los Angeles.
With the way things were going for the Hawks in recent weeks, it felt like this might be a long night. Instead, the Hawks showed some good fight against a solid LA team.
Captain Nick Foligno got the Hawks on the board at 3:26 of the third period. Just over two minutes later, Craig Smith tied it off on a beautiful play made by Lukas Reichel.
Chicago had to fight even more adversity when former Blackhawks forward Phillip Danault gave LA a 3-2 lead with under 10 minutes to play.
Needing a comeback once again, the Hawks found a way to get it tied. With the goalie pulled, Tyler Bertuzzi scored with 30 seconds left in regulation. They found a way to force overtime with a big goal to tie it up.
In OT, Connor Bedard made a beautiful move to create a chance for himself but it didn’t go. A shootout was necessary following the scoreless overtime period.
Nobody scored in the shootout outside of Ryan Donato who put a beautiful move on Darcy Kuemper for the win. He has been so important to the team so far this season and has rewarded them for putting him in a good situation.
It wasn’t the way that the Hawks drew it up but they’ll take wins any way that they can right now. This is a good one to build off of.
Petr Mrazek deserves some praise for his play in this game. He made 37 saves on 40 shots. If he didn’t play well, the Hawks would have never had a chance to come back.
The Kings had 40 shots but the Blackhawks only had 20. The Kings played well enough to win but weren’t able to close out the Blackhawks. It shows the resiliancy of the Hawks as they were able to win a game that they faced adversity.
It’s a quick turnaround for Chicago as they will face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. Arvid Soderblom will be in the net for the first time in six games as the Hawks look for back-to-back wins for the first time in a while.
They can build off this win against the Ducks who are not as good as the Kings. With that said, the Hawks aren’t this proven winner either so they must play better if they want to escape Southern California with two wins.
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