Caps snap Hawks 7-game win streak with 3-2 OT win
Enough is enough.
At least that's the way Jonathan Toews sees it when it comes to the Blackhawks having to resort to last-minute heroics to pull out a victory or to salvage a point.
Three times already this season — including Friday at the United Center against Washington — the Hawks have scored with the goalie pulled to force extra time.
“You can't continue to rely on scoring goals late in games like that,” Toews said. “We've just got to focus on playing ahead of a team like that.”
Just as he did in New Jersey, Marian Hossa came to the rescue when he slapped in a rebound off an Artemi Panarin shot with just 22.3 seconds left in regulation. Unfortunately for the Hawks, their seven-game winning streak came to an end when Marcus Johansson ripped a shot past Corey Crawford 2:20 into overtime and Washington claimed a 3-2 victory.
Still, the Hawks were happy to get a point.
“Well, obviously good (result) considering we were losing with a couple seconds left in the game,” Hossa said.
The winning play was set up when Vinnie Hinostroza tripped over a sprawled-out T.J. Oshie. Johansson, after working a perfect give-and-go with Dmitry Orlov, fired a shot that exploded over Corey Crawford's left shoulder.
Washington (9-3-1) got 32 saves from Braden Holtby and frustrated the Hawks' top line all night as Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane combined for just 1 shot on goal.
“It just seemed like they were sitting back and we had to dump pucks in and we weren't getting any pucks back on our forecheck,” said Toews, who had taken 12 shots on goal by himself the last two games. “Every time we tried to get the puck below their goal line, it was just tic-tac-toe and out of their zone every time.
“You waste a lot of energy when you're just automatically backchecking your own zone and not sustaining any pressure.”
Jay Beagle, who had just 32 career goals to his name in 323 games, scored twice in the first period as Washington took a 2-1 lead. The Hawks' other goal came from Brian Campbell, 6:39 into the first period and 22 seconds after Beagle scored with the Capitals playing short-handed.
Crawford had to leave during the second period with an equipment issue and was replaced by Scott Darling for 65 seconds. Darling made a save on the only shot he faced and was also fortunate that T.J. Oshie shot wide on a breakaway attempt 13:45 into the period.
Holtby stopped prime scoring chances from Marcus Kruger late in the first period and was fortunate that a Hossa one-timer sailed wide early in the second.
The Hawks (10-3-2) were playing without Artem Anisimov, who is out with an upper-body injury.