Twist ending for Blackhawks
LOS ANGELES -- There was only one way the Blackhawks wanted to look at what happened here Saturday.
A win is a win.
The Hawks survived a major third-period collapse to defeat the Kings 6-5 in overtime on Patrick Sharp's second goal of the game 1:48 into the extra session.
Taking a 5-1 lead into the third period, the Hawks sat back and let the Kings score four times in the last 12 minutes, including the tying goal from Anze Kopitar with 15 seconds to play.
"I think if it was a team ahead of us on the standings we would be pretty (ticked) off we gave them 1 point," James Wisniewski said. "Luckily, Los Angeles is behind us. We'll take the 2 points and just run and make it a learning experience. Up 4 goals you can't let up."
Hawks coach Denis Savard wasn't happy at all with what he saw in the third period from a team that still considers itself a playoff contender.
"First of all it's a great win; we needed those points, for sure," Savard said. "Basically what happened in the third is we got sloppy in our own end.
"Their defense got active. We did a good job of covering them in the first two periods and just didn't want to do it in the third. But we found a way to win and it was exciting -- not for us, but for the fans."
Sharp's goal in overtime was his 29th of the season and came on a Brent Seabrook rebound, giving the Hawks their fifth win in the last six games.
"We realized what we just let slip away and we wanted to come out and get that extra point," Seabrook said.
The Hawks broke the game open in the second period right after Seabrook responded to a cheap shot against Jonathan Toews by Dustin Brown and instigated a fight. It cost Seabrook 17 minutes in penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct, but Martin Havlat scored 14 seconds later to put the Hawks ahead 2-1.
Havlat's goal at 4:11 was the first of 4 scores by the Hawks in less than three minutes, chasing starting Kings goalie Dan Cloutier.
"I don't know if it sparked them," Seabrook said of his fight with Brown. "The guys had a great second period. It seemed like they were just finding the open spots and getting good shots on net."
The Kings collapsed defensively and the Hawks went in for the kill.
After Havlat was allowed to walk out of the corner untouched and score, Andrei Zyuzin made it 3-1 just 15 seconds later when he cruised the slot alone and fired home a pass from Robert Lang.
Toews scored on his own rebound at 7:07 then sweetly set up Jason Williams at 8:17 with a one-hand poke pass.
Then the Hawks almost threw it all away in the third period.
"I think we would have been pretty sick with ourselves if we had come out on the losing end of that game," Toews said. "We can't be happy with this game the way we came out in the third and let them come back in the game.
"We're going to play some better teams coming up and we can't give them a sniff like that at the end."
Tonight's faceoff
Blackhawks vs. Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center, 7 p.m.
TV: Comcast SportsNet Plus
Radio: WSCR 670-AM
The skinny: With 8 wins in the last nine games, the Ducks are starting to look like the team that won the Stanley Cup last June. Anaheim beat the Blues 2-1 in overtime Friday despite playing without injured regulars Doug Weight, Todd Marchant and Ryan Carter. The Hawks have lost both previous games to the Ducks, 5-3 in Chicago on Dec. 7 and 2-1 in Anaheim on Jan. 4. Patrick Lalime starts again in goal for the Hawks.
Player to watch: Teemu Selanne. The Ducks' star has 3 goals and 3 assists in nine games since coming out of retirement.
Next: Phoenix Coyotes at the United Center, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
-- Tim Sassone