Hossa hits milestone in Blackhawks' win

Jonathan Toews scored a pair of goals and Patrick Sharp clinched it in the shootout, but Thursday night in Ottawa belonged to one man and one man only: Marian Hossa.

Returning to the place where he began his Hall of Fame career, Big Hoss was just 2 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point mark.

Spoiler alert: He did it.

With a goal and an assist in the Hawks' 5-4 shootout win, Hossa became the 80th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point mark and just the fourth active player to hit that magic number.

“It doesn't get any better than this,” Hossa said. “It happened in Ottawa, where everything started.”

Hossa's 1,000th NHL point came on a wraparound goal late in the third period that gave the Hawks a 4-3 lead and seemed to set the table for a storybook ending.

But in a clunky game that Thursday's was, it only figured the Senators would tie it up in the final minutes on a goal by Mika Zibanejad to send it beyond regulation.

“Things like that you can't control,” said Hossa, who recorded his 101st multi-point game of his career. “But we won the game.”

And Hossa won over the hearts of the Ottawa fans — again — just like he had in the first seven years in the league he spent with the Senators. In appreciation of his accomplishment, the full house at the Canadian Tire Centre gave Hossa a standing ovation just prior to the start of overtime.

“That was so nice of them,” Hossa said. “A lot of memories were going through my head. It was a great moment.”

In addition to goals by Toews and Hossa, Kris Versteeg scored on an extra-effort play late in the first period to give the Hawks their first lead of the game. The veteran forward also added an assist for his first multi-point game of the season.

Scott Darling (2-1), making his third straight start in net, allowed 4 goals on 32 shots, but stopped all three Senators shootout attempts.

Of course, on this night, nothing was better than seeing Big Hoss reach the 1,000-point mark in his 1,100th NHL game, in the place where it all began.

“It means a lot to me,” Hossa said. “It took a little longer than expected, but thankfully it's over.”

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