This is when you say ‘Bazooka’ or something: Blackhawks 4, Coyotes 3 (OT)

The Chicago Blackhawks won a battle of the basement as they defeated Arizona Coyotes 4-3 in overtime on Friday night at the United Center.

The Coyotes opened the scoring just 1:28 into the first period. Jakob Chychrun fed an incoming Clayton Keller, who rifled the puck from the circle into the net to put the Coyotes up 1-0.

The Coyotes doubled their lead 12:24 into the period. After a beautiful cross-crease pass from Keller, Schmaltz one-timed the puck from a sharp angle to put Arizona up 2-0.

The Blackhawks got one back with 6:07 left in the period. On a delayed penalty, Boris Katchouk fed Seth Jones from along the wall, and Seth Jones deked a bit before firing a shot to make it 2-1.

The Blackhawks evened the score at 2-2 about three minutes into the second period. Lafferty pickpocketed a pair of Coyotes players, sending the puck to Andreas Athanasiou, who skated in close and scored off a slick backhand.

Late in the second, the Blackhawks thought they had taken the lead off a Taylor Raddysh goal, but it was waved off for goaltender interference.

During the third period, Jaxson Stauber had to make a few exciting saves to keep the Blackhawks tied with the Coyotes, like this absolute robbery of Juuso Valimaki with 6:39 left in the game.

Just a few minutes after the save above, the Blackhawks took a 3-2 lead. On another delayed penalty, Colin Blackwell stuffed home Athanasiou’s rebound with 5:26 left in regulation.

The Coyotes wouldn’t go quietly into the night, though, and tied the game back up at three with 2:27 to go. Keller dropped a pass to Nick Bjugstad in the slot, who one-timed it into the net.

For the second game in a row, the Blackhawks headed to overtime. However, unlike the game against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, Chicago beat Arizona 4-3 on a Caleb Jones goal.

Notes

• Considering the Coyotes are one of the few teams as terrible as the Blackhawks, it shouldn’t be surprising that Chicago looked really good in the first two periods. They controlled much of the play at 5-on-5, including having a 59.02 percent share of the shot attempts and 63.4 percent share of the expected goals. They probably deserved to be leading, rather than tied, after 40 minutes.
• The third period was a different story, though, and the Blackhawks made several more little mistakes that resulted in the Coyotes dictating play more. The shots at 5-on-5 still favored Chicago 11-9, but Arizona was superior in every other shot category, including a 19-15 edge in shot attempts, 13-7 edge in scoring chances.
• The general managers for both these team are probably frustrated that this game went to overtime. The Columbus Blue Jackets are winning the tank race at the moment.
• Because the Blackhawks keep the shots down, Stauber’s save-percentage of .885 percent doesn’t look pretty. But he wasn’t really to blame for any of the goals against and he also played big when needed. He also made Blackhawks history with his third win in three starts:

• The Blackhawks scored twice on delayed penalties. I can’t remember the last time any team did that in a single game.
• The bottom-six really carried this game for the Blackhawks. The Lafferty-Athanasiou-Blackwell line was especially dangerous with the highest expected goal share of 73.63 percent and converted on two goals themselves at 5-on-5.
• Seth Jones has been on a higher offensive kick in his last 15 or so games, especially since getting the hardware off his finger/hand. He’s scored the most goals this season (6) since the 2019-20 season with the Blue Jackets.
• That was a nice little goal from Caleb Jones in overtime. Nice to see the Jones brothers both score in the same game.
• Hold onto your butts, folks, because there’s going to be a lot of speculation about Patrick Kane in the coming days, especially after his comments on the Tarasenko trade to the New York Rangers this morning.

• The Blackhawks celebrated Black History Month with custom artwork for their jerseys from local Chicago artist Tyrese Ingram and a performance from the Sankofa Chicago Gospel Ensemble prior to puck drop.

• Not related to the Blackhawks game, but Frank Nazar — the other top forward prospect besides Lukas Reichel and No. 13 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft — played in his first game in the NCAA on Friday night since having hip surgery four months ago. And he did this:

Game Cards

Three stars

1. Andreas Athanasiou (CHI) — 1 G, 2 A
2. Clayton Keller (ARI) — 1 G, 1 A
3. Sam Lafferty (CHI) — 2 A

What’s next

The Blackhawks head to Winnipeg to take on the Jets for their second game in as many night Saturday with a 9 p.m. puck drop.