After a month of trudging along, the Blackhawks’ offense has finally awakened.
The Hawks followed up four goals Saturday with five goals Wednesday in a dramatic 5-4 overtime win over the Capitals, sweeping the season series and keeping alive interim coach Derek King’s streak of never having lost consecutive games.
“Guys are believing in themselves,” King said. “They believe, even if we get into overtime against a good hockey team, we can win.”
The Hawks also improved to a remarkable 6-0 in overtimes and shootouts under King. For the second time in two weeks, though, they only had to test that record because of a last-second opponent equalizer — this time a Conor Sheary poke-in with three seconds left.
Caleb Jones tapped in a rebound after a two-on-one rush with Kirby Dach in overtime to salvage the win after all.
“In overtime, we definitely have some firepower to score some goals,” Alex DeBrincat said. “It’s three-on-three, so you’ll get a lot of good chances if you just play good ‘D’ and transition the puck well.”
DeBrincat himself found the net twice, including the go-ahead goal with five minutes left that nearly proved the game-winner as well as the first of three goals in a furious 34-second span during the second period. Philipp Kurashev scored 18 seconds later, and MacKenzie Entwistle highlighted his first game since Nov. 7 with a goal 16 seconds after that, to delight a noisy crowd of 18,260.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 42 saves in his 501st career win after being honored pregame — with his family on the ice — for his milestone last week.
“I obviously want to win, right, every time you play,” Fleury said. “But to have my family on the ice with me, have them see what it’s like to be on the ice and to feel the cheers and the chants from the crowd saying your name, means a lot.”
