Blackhawks rally, defeat Senators 3-2 on Jonathan Toews’ OT goal

The Blackhawks had to take the Senators to overtime Tuesday at Canadian Tire Centre, but Chicago won it 3-2 as Jonathan Toews scored 42 seconds into the extra session.

Toews also had two assists for his third straight multipoint game, and Dominik Kubalik scored two goals to move into first place among all rookies this season with 18.

Robin Lehner made 20 saves to improve to 8-0-3 against the Senators in his career. He said it best, “it was a pretty bad game out there, nothing much happened.”

The Blackhawks started the game out poorly, giving up a goal to Connor Brown 3:33 into the first period, as he capitalized on a Dylan DeMelo rebound off Lehner for a 1-0 lead.

After a pretty passing display from the Senators, Chris Tierney finished a give-and-go with Thomas Chabot to make it 2-0 at 7:21. Adam Boqvist and Erik Gustafsson had taken the ice after a successful penalty kill and neither of them proved capable of covering for the other.

The first period was pretty even, despite the score, as the Blackhawks held a 16-13 Corsi advantage and 9-8 lead in shots at even strength. However, they allowed .73 expected goals against, and four high-danger chances against. That led to the scoring chances for Ottawa that they converted on.

In the second period, the Blackhawks got a few chances that could have been goals, as Jonathan Toews missed on a yawning-net opportunity and Drake Caggiula hit the post with a half-slapper. But after 27 shot attempts, nine of which were on net, and seven high-danger opportunities, the Blackhawks finally broke through.

Patrick Kane extended his scoring streak to seven games with the primary assist, and Kubalik extended his goal-scoring streak to five with the deflection. With the goal, Kubalik broke a tie with Buffalo’s Victor Olofsson, who is out three-to-five more weeks with a lower-body injury.

Neither team took a penalty in the second period, although that’s likely for the best. Neither did much in their opportunities in the first.

Kubalik scored his second goal of the game with a snap shot that beat Marcus Hogberg five-hole to tie it 2-2 at 3:41 of the third. He has seven goals during his five-game goal streak.

With the goal, Kubalik had scored seven of the Blackhawks’ last 10. It’s an excellent pass by Toews, but sometimes all you get is one player going, and that has been Kubalik the last few games.

The game would head to overtime, where Toews kept the puck on his blade for a long shift, until finally sniping one past Hogberg for the game winner.

Toews has been excellent in overtime for the Blackhawks this season and has been hot lately, with 36 points in his last 36 games.

Game Charts

Natural Stat Trick

Natural Stat Trick

Three Stars

1. Dominik Kubalik (CHI) - 2 goals, .89 expected goals
2. Jonathan Toews (CHI) - GWG, 2 assists, 2 takeaways
3. Patrick Kane (CHI) — 2 assists, 21:16 TOI

What’s next?

The Blackhawks continue their three-game road trip against the Canadiens at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Bell Centre in Montreal.