Ryan Getzlaf scored a power-play goal at 2:16 of overtime, lifting the Ducks to a 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks on Saturday night.Cam Fowler’s shot was stopped by Corey Crawford, but Getzlaf poked the rebound under the sliding goaltender. Getzlaf’s sixth goal of the season came with Andrew Shaw serving a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
”I thought their changes were a little bit close all night long, almost,” Getzlaf said. ”When you have a change like that in overtime that’s going to be a breakaway, that’s a pretty key moment. I think the referees did a pretty good job. Obviously I’m going to say that and they’re probably going to say the opposite. I thought they were pretty close all night and it cost them in overtime.”
The Ducks, who dropped the first two games of the season series against the Blackhawks in overtime, improved to 2-1-1 on a seven-game trip covering 1,300 miles through four time zones. They also improved to 15-4-2 since the NHL’s Christmas break.Jakob Silfverberg and David Perron scored in the third period, and Frederik Anderson made five saves after John Gibson departed after two periods with an upper-body injury. Gibson’s injury is not believed to be serious.
”I think everyone stepped it up in the third, myself included,” Perron said. ”I thought my first two periods were just all right and I needed to have a good third and I was a lot better.”
Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa left with a left leg injury in the second period of Chicago’s third consecutive loss. The defending Stanley Cup champions dropped to 4-6 since their franchise-record 12-game win streak.Brent Seabrook had two goals for the Hawks, which eliminated Anaheim in the Western Conference finals last May. Crawford had 41 saves.
”We just haven’t quite had the speed and the momentum, that jump that we’ve been looking for,” captain Jonathan Toews said. ”Tonight was a little bit better, but I think top to bottom, all four lines need to be better.”
Hossa went down in the corner after he was hit by Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm on his lower left leg with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the second. The 37-year-old winger, sitting on 496 career goals, had to be helped off the ice and went straight to the locker room.He was placed on injured reserve and will miss at least a week.Richard Panik then replaced Hossa on the Hawks top line and drew a hooking penalty on Nate Thompson, leading to Seabrook’s ninth goal of the season. The defenseman’s first shot was stopped by Gibson but he drove the rebound under the goaltender’s left arm at 15:28.Gibson made 16 saves before he was replaced by Andersen at the start of the third.Anaheim tied it at 1 when Silfverberg poked home a rebound at 4:56 for his seventh of the season. Silfverberg has four goals and nine assists in his last 15 games after a slow start to the season.The Ducks kept up the pressure, and Getzlaf found Perron for the tiebreaking goal at 8:38. Perron turned around and snapped a shot under Crawford’s left arm for his ninth on the year.
”David by his own admission will probably say he wasn’t pretty good in the first two periods,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”And I had a little talk with him and the third period everything changed.”
But Seabrook tied it again with another big drive at 12:01 of the third. It was his career-best 10th of the season.
NOTES—Blackhawks F Artemi Panarin returned to the lineup after missing two games with an illness. … It was the 800th win in franchise history for the Ducks. …Erik Gustafsson was a healthy scratch. The rookie had played in 11 straight games. … Getzlaf has three goals and 16 assists in his last 15 games. ”When he was struggling at the beginning of the year, we were struggling,” Boudreau said. ”When he’s going pretty well right now, we’re not going too bad right now.”