Darling can't do it all; Hawks fall 2-1 in OT
Scott Darling was magnificent in net for the Blackhawks in Calgary on Friday night.
Magnificent in the first period, when he turned away 12 shots. Magnificent in the third period, when he made 14 saves. And flat-out ridiculous in the first minute-plus of overtime when the Flames peppered Darling with point-blank blast after point-blank blast.
As for the Hawks' skill players? Well, they had their chances but Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin and Co. managed a only measly power-play goal in the first period and that allowed the Flames to emerge with a 2-1 overtime victory.
“(We) gave the puck away four times in the short amount of time in overtime,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters afterward. “And you can't give it away once, let alone four (times).”
The last turnover came when Johnny Gaudreau stripped the puck from Brent Seabrook, then beat Darling with a gorgeous back-and-forth move right in front of the net with 3:22 left in OT.
The Hawks had just 19 shots on goal, 4 in the third period. Darling finished with 35 saves.
“He was a big reason why we got the 1 point — the biggest reason we got the one point,” Duncan Keith said of Darling. “He played great and kept us in the game.”
The Hawks remain a team trying to find themselves on the road, where they are 3-5-1. Darling, though, said the players aren't at all disappointed in the start to this six-game road trip, which began with a 4-3 OT win in Edmonton on Wednesday.
“It's definitely not frustrating to get 3 out of 4 points,” Darling said. “And maybe we didn't have our best game, so we can … build off this game, build off last game. I think we're gonna be fine.”
Kane extended his points streak to a career-best 15 games when he assisted on Artem Anisimov's power-play goal at 16:59 of the first period, which tied the game at 1-1.
Kane now has 18 assists and 31 points on the season, while Anisimov registered his eighth goal to surpass his entire total from last year.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, the only other Blackhawk with a points streak as long as Kane's in the last 20 years is Chris Chelios, who also had a 15-gamer from Oct. 26-Nov. 28, 1995. Chelios had 4 goals and 16 assists. Kane has 10 goals and 15 assists during his streak.
To no one's surprise, Wayne Gretzky holds the record for the longest points streak in NHL history at 51 games. For Kane to even get into the top 10 in NHL history, he would need to register a point in 13 more straight games.
Flames goalie Karri Ramo wasn't nearly as busy as Darling, but made one of the saves of the day when he somehow stopped a Marcus Kruger shot in the first period by throwing his arm at the shot while lying on his stomach.
Slap shots:
• Andrew Desjardins and Viktor Tikhonov were back in the lineup after being healthy scratches for three and four straight games, respectively. Teuvo Teravainen is out with an upper-body injury, while Marko Dano missed Friday's game due to an illness. With Dano out, Andrew Shaw skated on the top line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa.
• Jonathan Toews leads the Blackhawks with 24 penalty minutes. Ryan Garbutt is next with 17. … Patrick Kane has already equaled his total number of power-plays goals from last season (6). His career high is 13 in 2008-09.
Scouting report
Blackhawks (x-x-x) vs. Vancouver Canucks (7-7-6) at Rogers Arena, 9 p.m. Saturday
TV: WGN
Radio: WGN 720-AM
The skinny: Daniel (7G, 11A) and Henrik Sedin (5G, 10A) continue to lead the way for Vancouver, which sits in fourth place in the tightly packed Pacific Division. The Canucks got off to a good start but have stumbled badly, going 1-5-2 over the last eight games, averaging a mere 2.5 goals in the process. The last seven games came on the road as this will be the Canucks' first home game since Nov. 4. ... The Hawks' only loss on last year's circus trip came at Vancouver, a 4-1 setback.
Next: San Jose Sharks at SAP Center, 9 p.m. Wednesday
— John Dietz