Hawks score first, hang on 4-2 for fourth straight win

Maybe the Blackhawks don't need to erase a 2-0 deficit in order to win a game after all. Maybe they can score the first goal, and it'll all be OK.

Maybe, just maybe, they can go ahead 2 goals in a game and still win.

The Hawks (4-2) went into Tuesday night's contest against the Florida Panthers (4-2-1) riding a three-game win streak, all of which started with a 2-goal hole, making them the fourth team in NHL history to win their first three games of a season by overcoming a multi-goal deficit.

That streak ended as soon as the Hawks took their own multi-goal lead at the United Center in the first period, but their win streak goes on, as they took down the Panthers 4-2. The Hawks have won four straight.

And Taylor Raddysh wanted the lead. Before Tuesday's contest, Raddysh said, "I feel like right now, we've put together some pretty good games, (but) we've got to get better in some areas, better starts and things like that just to give ourselves a better chance."

He took the "better start" element into his own hands only 2:57 into the first.

After interference penalty by Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Raddysh entered the offensive zone up the right side and let loose on a slap shot that seemed to scream, Could we please start a game with the lead?

It was the first time the Hawks have done so in their first six games, as they went ahead 1-0.

It was the fifth power-play goal in six games for the Hawks, who had only 47 in 82 games last season.

And then the Hawks turned the script completely upside down when Andreas Athanasiou hit Patrick Kane on the right faceoff dot. Kane wrested one far-side on Bobrovsky for the team's first 2-0 start to a game and his first goal of the season.

Just like Raddysh, Kane was itching to get it going.

"You always want to feel that pressure that the team needs you to produce, right?" said Kane after Tuesday's morning skate. "And you always want to produce every night, whether that's pressure from the team or pressure you just put on yourself."

Florida, which won its first two games, is 2-2-1 since. Eetu Luostarinen and Matthew Tkachuk scored for the Panthers.

The Hawks almost put too much pressure on themselves in first half of the second period. They committed 10 minutes worth of penalties, including 90 seconds worth of 5-on-3 play, but they killed them all off on a perfect night for the PK, which went 6-6.

Goalie Alex Stalock continued his already solid performance to start the season.

He played the puck from the hash marks, chewed out Panthers players and alarmingly slid in and out and all around his goal crease.

He made big stops on Colin White in the slot and Patric Hornqvist from the doorstep within 45 seconds in the third period in trying to earn his ninth career shutout, but Luostarinen's rebound goal at 11:32 ended that bid.

A second-period Philipp Kurashev goal gave the Hawks a 1-goal cushion, when he scored with 4:02 left in the third after maneuvering by Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling, who was hobbling after blocking a shot seconds earlier.

Two Panthers goals made things tense late in the third.

But Jonathan Toews' empty-netter with 23 seconds left allowed the building to breathe.

It was the first game in which the Hawks scored first, the fifth where their opponent outshot them, and their fourth win in a row.

"In 82 games, all the situations are going to happen, and they're going to come around again," Richardson said, "So it's nice to come out on the upper end and realize that we can do it, and I think it gives players more confidence just to do what they need to do. "