The Chicago Blackhawks took on the New York Islanders on Long Island on Thursday night. The two teams that haven’t played a whole lot in recent years were playing their second game against each other in a week. The Islanders came in hot winners of 4 out of 5 with their only loss during that stretch the shootout loss last week in Chicago. Ray Emery got the nod for the Hawks in goal over the struggling Corey Crawford and Al Montoya was in net for the Islanders. The Hawks had a strong start defensively and were all over the Islanders early. But a bad pass by Patrick Sharp led to a break for John Tavares. Emery shut the door and kept the game scoreless. The Islanders got the first power play of the game when Michael Frolik went off for tripping at 9:10. The Hawks killed the penalty and got a power play of their own just as their penalty expired when Josh Bailey was whistled for boarding Marcus Kruger. Marian Hossa gave the Hawks the lead at 11:42 of the first with the Hawks 5th power play goal in their last 11 chances when he banked a pass off of Montoya and in. With the goal Hossa became the 85th player in NHL history to record 400 career goals. Emery made a huge save moments later on another Tavares breakaway. Shots were 10 apiece in the first period in a period that was mostly solid for the visitors.
Just 2:23 into the second period Patrick Sharp gave the Hawks a 2-0 advantage. The Islanders got an early power play with Steve Montador off for interference. The Hawks killed the penalty to maintain the two goal advantage. The Hawks went to the power play themselves when PA Parenteau went off for tripping. The power play lasted just 26 seconds before Patrick Sharp went off for hooking to nullify the Hawks man advantage. The Hawks killed off the remaining power play time after a little four on four hockey and continued to lead 2-0. Travis Hamonic cut the lead to 2-1 with a point blast at 18:21 of the second period. Patrick Kane went off for an elbowing call moments later in a ghost call that he never made contact on. An awful call put the Hawks shorthanded with less than two minutes. To make matters worse Dave Bolland was whistled for high sticking and the Hawks were down two men for almost a full two minutes. The Hawks killed the period but there was still 51 seconds remaining on the 2 man advantage that carried over into the third period. The Islanders outshot the Hawks 15-9 in the second.
The Hawks short two men to start the third period killed off the remaining time to remain in the lead 2-1. The Islanders did not get a shot off on the two man advantage time in the third period. After holding the Islanders to two shots through the first ten minutes of the third, Steve Staios was able to tie the game with Emery screened at 10:53 of the period. The Hawks got a power play as the man that tied the game went off for delay of game when Staios shot the puck into the crowd. The Hawks were unable to do anything with the man advantage golden opportunity and the game remained tied 2-2 with under 5 minutes to play. Dan Carcillo took a stupid retaliation penalty when he took exception to a push on Toews and punched Okposo in the face and drew a two minute roughing minor. The Hawks got lucky and killed the undisciplined penalty. The Islanders outshot the Hawks 8-7 for the third period and the game headed to overtime.
The Hawks wasted little time in overtime as Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp came in 2 on 1 and Sharpie finished off a Hossa blast and rebound to give the Hawks a 3-2 overtime win. The Islanders moved to 0-6 on the year in overtime/shootouts.
The Hawks improved to 9-6-1 on the road and 17-8-4 overall. With the win the Hawks moved within 1 point of the Minnesota Wild for the Western Conference lead. The Wild play in Los Angeles later tonight. The Hawks will head home and host the Sharks on Sunday night.
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