Captain Clutch Nets 4th OT Winner This Year As Hawks Beat Avs, 4-3

Jonathan Toews has many nicknames, but the one that fits him best has to be Captain Clutch.  Toews scored a power play goal in overtime as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 Friday Night.  It was his fourth overtime game-winner...this year!


The game started where the previous game left off; a Blackhawk penalty within the first 4 minutes of the game.  Within 18 seconds, Carl Soderberg scored on the power play to give the Avs a quick, 1-0 lead.  The Hawks did not have a good period, but fate would be on their side when Artem Anisimov took a pass from Patrick Kane and waited before snapping a shot past Colorado goalie, Semyon Varlamov, to tie the game with less than 2 minutes remaining in the period.

The 2nd period saw, new scoring sensation, Andrew Desjardins, redirect a shot into the net for his 3rd goal in his last two games, to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead at the 2:07 mark.  Blake Comeau tripped Kane two minutes later.  Kane then made him pay as 22 seconds after the start of the power play, Kane did a give and go with Artemi Panarin and Kane received the pass back and snapped a wrist shot behind Varlamov to extend the lead to 3-1.  Half way through the period, Cody McLeod wristed a shot from just within the Blackhawk blue line and somehow made its way past Hawks starting goalie, Scott Darling, to bring the Avs back to within 1 goal at 3-2.  Other than that goal, the Blackhawks dominated that period by out-shooting Colorado, 17-5.

In the 3rd, Erik Johnson went through three Blackhawks and flipped a shot that squirted through Darling with less than 5 minutes remaining in the game to knot the game at 3.  It would take overtime to decide the fate of this game.  Colorado got called for too many men on the ice half way through the overtime giving the Blackhawks a power play.  They would cash in again on the power play, they went 2 for 6 on the night.  Some would say it's not fair to have a power play unit of Toews-Kane-Panarin-Keith, but most of us would not see a problem with that.  Toews received a pass from Kane and when he turned toward the net, he was all alone and beat Varlamov, short-side, for the game-winner.

Notable mentions: Artem Anisimov's 1st period goal was his 100th of his career.  That goal also was the first for the Hawks against Varlamov this year in almost 4 periods.  Varlamov is now 11-4, lifetime against the Blackhawks.  Andrew Desjardins now has 4 goals this year.  He is one goal away from tying his career high in goals.

Three Stars Of The Game
1st - CHI - Jonathan Toews (1G)
2nd - COL - Semyon Varlamov (43 saves .907 SV%)
3rd - CHI - Patrick Kane (1G 2A)  7 shots

Next game: Sunday, January 3rd, Home vs. Ottawa Senators, 6:00PM CT

LET'S GO HAWKS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!