The Chicago Blackhawks faced off with the Florida Panthers Thursday night in Sunrise, FL. The Hawks took advantage of an egregious turnover by the Panthers early on that had Andrew Brunette and Jonathan Toews in alone on Panthers goalie Jacob Markstrom. Markstrom gave a rebound on a Brunette shot and Toews put in the rebound for a 1-0 Hawks lead at 4:04. Things got a bit physical after the Hawks goal and Jamal Mayers and Matt Bradley went toe to toe with Mayers getting the better of the fist a cuffs. Both went to the sin bin with 5 for fighting penalties. The action was end to end after the fight with a slight advantage in play going to the Panthers. Former Hawk Jack Skille drew a penalty at 12:00 when Sami Lepisto went off for tripping, but the Hawks penalty killing unit shut the door on Florida for another kill. Chicago was outshot 15-7 but went to the locker room up 1-0. Corey Crawford was brilliant in net stopping all 15 shots in the period.
The Hawks took control of the play in the second period. Viktor Stalberg hit the crossbar early in the second and it was Marian Hossa giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead off a sweet feed from Patrick Kane side to side and Hossa buried it for his 6th goal of the season. Nick Leddy added his 6th assist of the season on the scoring play. The Hawks dominated the puck possession game for most of the middle period. However, the Panthers got a late goal from Stephen Weiss with under two minutes to play in the period. Chicago outshot Florida 15-12 for the period and led 2-1 at the intermission.
Early in the third period Chicago went to the power play at 00:56. The Hawks once again failed to convert on a power play that looked like the 2nd worst power play in the league. The Hawks were on their heels for much of the third but Corey Crawford kept the Hawks ahead. The Hawks paid for their awful play in the third period when Ed Jovanovski deflected a point shot to tie the game at 2-2 with under 3 minutes to play in the period. Florida outshot Chicago 14-5 in the third period and the Hawks were lucky to make it to overtime.
In the overtime the Hawks dominated in shots and chances but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Hawks headed to a shootout for the fourth time this season. Corey Crawford was perfect in the shootout and Patrick Kane scored the only goal of the shootout for a 3-2 Hawks win.
Florida outshot Chicago 43-33 for the game. The Hawks were 0-1 on the power play and the penalty kill was 1-1 in a game that saw the zebras swallow their whistles. The Hawks were lucky to get out of South Florida with two points after taking the third period off.
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