Patience pays off as Blackhawks grind out overtime win against Blues
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Patience pays off as Hawks grind out overtime win against Blues originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The first period of Friday’s afternoon matchup against the St. Louis Blues had a “here we go again” kind of feel to it.
The Blues scored 59 seconds into the game and later added a second to make it 2-0. They outshot the Blackhawks 16-10 in the first period and controlled the pace of play.
One team looked like a playoff contender. The other looked like a team still wondering if it can be.
The script changed, however, once both teams hit the ice for the second period.
Over the next 40 minutes, the Blackhawks hunkered down defensively by giving up only eight shots on goal total and zero high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Blackhawks generated 16 shots of their own and eventually evened up the score at 2-2 late in the third period to force overtime.
And when Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane stepped on the ice together, you figured they’d find a way to work their magic. And that’s exactly what happened, with Kane finding DeBrincat for a one-timer goal to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 win.
“Earlier in the season [when] we were down 2-0, it’s probably over,” DeBrincat said. “But I think we had a good reset there in the intermission there and came out and play strong.”
It would’ve been easy for the Blackhawks to get demoralized after Jonathan Toews’ goal got overturned in the first period by a successful offside challenge for the Blues. In fact, they probably did, considering how uninspiring the play was for the rest of the frame.
But there was a quick regroup in the locker room. Interim head coach Derek King said he didn’t say much during the intermission after his team went down 2-0, other than to be patient.
“It might take to the last minute, might take you to overtime before you get that goal to win the game but you have to be patient,” King said. “You can’t force stuff and I thought they did a great job with that.”
Eventually, the…
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Source : yahoo
