Blackhawks salvage a point in circus trip finale

LOS ANGELES — Time and again, the Blackhawks have escaped with first-period leads despite being badly outshot. Time and again, the Hawks are pulling out wins despite chasing the puck all game. Time and again, they say they know they’ve been fortunate through the first quarter of the season, that it’s not — as Patrick Kane has repeatedly put it — the recipe for long-term success.

Yet it almost worked again on Saturday, as the Hawks salvaged a point in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings, salvaging a .500 record (3-3-1) on their circus trip. They took three out of four points in Southern California without Jonathan Toews in the lineup. Jeff Carter gave the Kings their fifth straight win with a goal at 1:06 of overtime, seconds after the Hawks finished killing off a Brent Seabrook penalty.

“Especially without the best player in the world, Jonathan Toews, guys stepped up and really filled the gap,” said Scott Darling, who made 27 saves but fell to 4-0-1 on the season.

The Kings were all over the Hawks to start the game, and appeared to take a 1-0 lead just 59 seconds in when Tyler Toffoli backhanded in a Jeff Carter rebound. But Joel Quenneville challenged the goal, and it was overturned when the league determined Tanner Pearson had shoved Niklas Hjalmarsson into Scott Darling, impairing his ability to make the stop. It was a big break for the Hawks, who didn’t do much with it.

In fact, the Hawks didn’t manage their first shot on goal until 11:21 into the third period. But that shot — a Kane deflection of a Duncan Keith blast — beat Kings goaltender Peter Budaj for a 1-0 lead. The Kings outshot the Hawks 13-4 in the first, firing 13 of the first 14 shots of the period. Yet they trailed the Hawks 1-0 entering the second.

“But we didn’t give up a ton,” Quenneville countered. “I know they had some shots, but the quality wasn’t there. I thought we did some right things. [Darling] kept us in there as well. It was a great tip and a great shot right off the bat. Always nice to score first. Even though it was tilted a little bit, it wasn’t like we were giving up high-quality [chances].” 


The Kings got another quick start in the second, with Alec Martinez — who scored the series-winning goal at the United Center in overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference final in 2014 — beat Darling from the right circle. The game eventually opened up in the middle of the second period, with several high-quality scoring chances at either end. But poor power plays by both teams stunted any momentum, and the Hawks started looking like a team on Night 13 of the circus trip and playing their sixth game in nine days.

The third period was lackluster for both teams, as the Hawks outshot the Kings 8-2 and gutted out a regulation tie.

“Missing Jonny is a tough, tough loss,” Marian Hossa said. “And lots of guys have to step up to replace a guy like that. I think we did lots of good things tonight. Obviously, we came up short, but three out of four, it’s still pretty good.”

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