Jonathan Toews Wins It In Overtime For the Chicago Blackhawks

Oct 18, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Nashville Predators left wing Viktor Stalberg (25) and Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook (7) battle for the puck during the first period at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

The Blackhawks took on their Central divisional rival the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. They scored on their first and final shots on goal to secure the overtime win 2-1. Here is the game recap of the Hawks fourth game of the season from the United Center.

First Period

The Blackhawks didn’t let their 50 shot game disappointment linger very long with Johnny Oduya firing one past Carter Hutton (making his first start of the season) with less than 2 minutes into the game and it found the back of the net. It was Oduya’s first goal of the season and Bryan Bickell‘s first assist of the season. The Blackhawks looked to be rolling early getting the first powerplay of the night, but then Andrew Shaw and Niklas Hjalmarsson both took penalties to create a 4 on 3 then a 5 on 3. As the 5 on 3 ended Shea Weber got the puck and blasted one past the glove of Corey Crawford.

The Blackhawks did do their out shooting the opponent thing again in the first period with a 11-3 lead after one period. Marian Hossa had a couple of monster shifts while the Captain looked close to ending his goal scoring drought but both came up dry in the first but everything pointed towards something different later in the contest.

Second Period

Instead of giving you details of the period here is what you need to know about the second period. The Hawks had 4 powerplays got two shots on net and didn’t score. They had one penalty called on them and killed it off. It basically was a period of watching the puck get cleared all the way down the ice. Pretty boring hockey and oh yeah the Hawks out shot the Preds 11-4 for the period and 23-6 through 2 games and this seems like a carbon copy of the last game!

Third Period

The Hawks really dominated the first two periods, but like Wednesday night the third period was much more even with the Predators getting some quality chances unlike the first two periods, but Crawford was sharp even though he had faced very few shots heading to the third period.

The Hawks had some great chances but the word all week was they were being too cute and there it was the Hawks being cute doing drop passes instead of getting traffic to the net and doing the dirty work needed to score. Instead it was another big shot total without many offensive results. It looks pretty but it’s not very effective…..yet

OVERTIME

It really didn’t look good for the Hawks when Patrick Sharp was forced to trip a Predator at the 3 minute mark of overtime. The Predators would be ready to finish off the Hawks but the puck ended up on Toews stick on a breakaway and although he didn’t score on his first shot he was able to jam in the rebound for his first goal of the season and a Blackhawks win!