Hawks work overtime to beat Rangers 2-1

Henrik Lundquist and his New York Ranger teammates made the hawks work overtime, but thanks to five power play chances (to only 1 for New York) and sustained pressure that resulted from those man advantages, the hawks were finally able to tie the game late in the 3rd and go on to win it in OT.

Despite the low score line, the game featured lots of action and good scoring chances, mostly created by the hawks. The hawks started the 1st period with good jump, getting several good chances and firing three shots on net in the first minute & a half, only to be thwarted by Lundquist's superb goaltending. Later, they were unable to convert an early pp opportunity, registering only 1 official shot on goal, and as often is the case, the team being outplayed ends up scoring on their first good opportunity.

The rangers took advantage of a fortuitous bounce off the glass as they attempted to clear the zone to make a change. The hawks were also looking to change after a long shift, with Hossa, Seabrook & Keith staying on after noticing that the rangers had gotten possession and were moving up ice, however Toews & Versteeg were caught deep when the puck bounced right to Gaborik at center ice.

Rozsival, sensing the developing opportunity to catch the hawks in a change, jumped up from his defense position, skating down the right side & took Gaborik's lead pass, with Gaborik then following Rozsival down the right side while Higgins & Drury moved into the hawk zone from the left side, both coming off the ranger bench before the hawks could replace Toews & Versteeg.

The hawks still looked in reasonable position, having Keith, Seabrook & Hossa back, but as the play developed, Rozsival dropped the puck back to Gaborik at the top of the right circle and headed for the net with Keith in his path, effectively neutralizing the hawk Dman. That gave Gaborik time & space to move into the slot area, while Seabrook started to focus on him & come out to challenge, with Hossa still backing in deeper, focusing on Gaborik & not Higgins streaking down the open left side.

Hossa's defensive lapse gave Higgins plenty of room and Gaborik led him with a perfect pass in the left faceoff circle & Higgins wristed it up high past Huet and the rangers found themselves up 1-0 despite being outshot 8-3 to that point.

The hawks continued to press the remainder of the period, including a good part of the last two minutes with a 4 on 4, but could not solve Lundquist, who came up big in the dying seconds, first on a screened point shot by Seabrook and on the rebound by Versteeg.

The hawks opened up the 2nd period the way they had ended the first, creating another excellent scoring chance when Versteeg picked up the puck in the right corner behind the ranger goal line, spotting Hossa open in front in the process, and setting him up point blank but Lundquist made yet another sparkling right skate save, robbing Hossa. Midway through the 2nd, the hawks got another good chance after a turnover at the ranger line. Madden somehow managed to beat the defender & found Ladd in the slot & he fired a high wrist shot headed for the top right hand corner but Lundquist fought it off with his glove. Late in the 2nd, Madden with more fine board work after taking a feed from Ladd found Hossa moving into an open slot area from the left side & Hossa was robbed point blank yet again by Lundquist. The hawks outshot the rangers 14-10 in the 2nd, with the teams each having a pp opportunity late in the period.

Early in the 3rd, the hawks went to the attack again, but with greater urgency. Campbell, looking as if to shoot from the right point, fired a hard pass that was deflected in front by Sharp, who raised his stick believing he had beaten Lundquist, yet the ranger goalie reacted not only to make the save but did not give a rebound with Brouwer parked on his doorstep as a screen, ready to pounce on any loose puck.

The rangers then ran into penalty trouble as the hawks continued to press, desperately trying to get a goal. Anisimov took a penalty in the neutral zone for tripping Patrick Kane, though arguably it was a bit of a marginal call in that Kane went down fairly easily. Nevertheless, the rangers managed to kill it off with the hawks failing to even direct a shot at the net.

Two minutes after having killed off Anisimov's penalty, the rangers Rozsival took another minor for high-sticking Brouwer in the ranger zone. The hawks this time created more chances but missed the target several times, and had another blocked, but the best chance came when Campbell fired a shot from the left point that was tipped by Byfuglien in front & eluded Lundquist only to hit the crossbar & stay out.

At this point, the ranger net was literally under siege and less than a minute and a half after they killed their 2nd minor of the period, they got another one to Girardi for tripping Kane in the defensive zone - perhaps another marginal call.

The hawks proceeded to storm the ranger net, and finally got one past Lundquist. Kane working the right half boards, found Hossa at the right side of the net. Hossa moved in close & tried to jam the puck past Lundquist and was stopped, but the puck remained loose in the crease, while Hossa, Toews, Kane & Sharp, off the left point, all converged on the blue ice. After it appeared that Toews jammed at the loose puck in the crease, it squirted in front to Sharp and somehow Lundquist, who had gone down to stop Hossa's stuff attempt, managed to move over to stop Sharp's point blank shot, however, the puck remained loose in the crease, with Hossa & Toews both taking jabs at it, with Toews finally connecting with his backhand to chip it over a sprawled Lundquist to tie the game.

After tying it, the hawks seemed to take their foot off the gas, perhaps wanting to preserve at least a hard fought point rather than risk losing what they had fought most of the evening to get - back to even on the scoreboard. They managed only 1 more shot on net in the 3rd after the goal.

Given Lundquist's shootout record, however, it was in the hawks' best interests to try to win in regulation or in the OT. They managed to open the OT with a couple of chances, but didn't seriously threaten. Late in the OT, the rangers created a couple of good chances of their own, however Drury's deflection from in close on a point shot was denied by Huet, with the rebound going to Prospal in the slot. Prospal's shot hit Keith's skate & bounced out to the high slot, past both Byfuglien & Gaborik.

Both players gave chase with Byfuglien using a bit of a stiff-arm on Gaborik to gain position and propel himself forward, picking up the loose puck with Gilroy the lone ranger Dman back. Byfuglien turned outside, continuing to drive his legs to pick up speed, while catching Gilroy a bit flat footed, later saying he knew they had been on a long shift & tried to take advantage of their being tired. Byfuglien proceeded to blow by Gilroy with the normally speedy Gaborik racing back down center to try to prevent the big hawk from cutting back inside but to no avail. Byfuglien had blown by both ranger defenders and cut in on Lunquist lifting a backhand over the sprawling netminder to give the hawks a thrilling OT win.

In a way, you had to feel for Lundquist who had come within 5 minutes from single handedly making 1 goal stand up for the win. He was simply brilliant the entire game with the rangers having the misfortune of getting 3 times as many penalties and five times the number of powerplays called against them than the hawks did. Lundquist made 39 saves on 41 shots, a save percentage of over .950, with many of those shots from in close, representing scoring chances. He almost got the rangers to the shootout, where his record is even more impressive.

With their 3rd OT win in their last 4 games, the hawks moved back into a tie for 2nd in the conference (& 4th overall), 3 points behind SJ, with 3 games in hand.

Their special teams continue to come through for them - not only the 4 on 4 in OT, but their powerplay as well. Huet in contrast to Lundquist, faced only 18 shots the entire game but came through when he had to. The hawks next play in Buffalo on Friday, with Patrick Kane returning to his hometown for the first time since being arrested over the summer, then have their next 5 at home before finishing their pre-Christmas schedule in Detroit on the 23rd.

With the favorable schedule, the hawks have a chance to position themselves well for the holiday break and for the upcoming road games in January.