Chicago Blackhawks top Canucks in OT thriller
Of the six rookies to break in with the Blackhawks this season, Vinnie Hinostroza has had the toughest time finding his place on the team.
Saturday night in Vancouver, though, the Bartlett native had the game of his life as the Hawks stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to claim a 4-3 victory in overtime.
The Hawks (13-4-2) poured in 3 third-period goals and won it when Marian Hossa wristed a shot that beat Jacob Markstrom with 56 seconds left in OT. Hossa now has 11 goals on the season and 10 in the last 12 games.
A wildly entertaining overtime featured a pair of downright ridiculous saves by Scott Darling. They came with 3:46 to go on a Markus Granlund backhander and then with 1:55 left on a Loui Eriksson backhander. Both shots came on breakaways just a few feet in front of the net.
Darling made 24 saves to improve to 4-0-0.
"It was a tremendous comeback," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. "We didn't have anything going for two periods."
After Artemi Panarin got the Hawks on the board early in the third, Hinostroza scored his first NHL goal when he followed up his own shot and poked the puck past Markstrom.
"It was definitely exciting," Hinostroza said. "Been thinking about it a lot actually. So it's nice to get that out of the way and hopefully I'll keep producing."
Vancouver clung to a 3-2 lead for over 10 minutes and killed off a Hawks power play, but Ryan Hartman tied things up with 4:14 left in regulation when he one-timed a shot from the slot off a perfect pass from Hinostroza.
"Guys were saying, 'We're coming back. There's no way we're losing this one,' " said Hinostroza, who was also credited with the secondary assist on Hossa's goal. "It's definitely cool to hear that and be a part of the comeback."
Hinostroza, the game's No. 1 star, had been a healthy scratch in Games 5-8 and 11-14, then suffered a concussion in Winnipeg when he was crunched by Josh Morrissey.
Coming into this game, Vancouver had a lead for a grand total of 39 minutes all season.
Maybe the Blackhawks knew that and took the Canucks for granted - or maybe the Hawks were tired because they were playing back-to-back - but whatever it was, they looked dead on arrival during the first 40 minutes.
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from Eriksson 13:49 into the first period, then added a pair of late second-period goals 84 seconds apart to take a 3-0 lead. The first goal came on a short-handed breakaway by Bo Horvath, already the fourth shorty the Hawks have allowed this season.
The Hawks generated no pressure and very few scoring opportunities in the first two periods when they managed just 11 shots on goal. Their best chance came when Jonathan Toews broke free with 6:35 to go in the second, but his shot hit the left post.