Crawford, Panik Lead Blackhawks to 2-1 SO Victory Against Panthers

The Chicago Blackhawks came home from the annual circus trip, beat up, but with a 3-3-1 record on the trip.  The first game after the circus trip is not always a good thing.  The Florida Panthers came into the United Center after firing head coach, Gerard Gallant after a mediocre start to the year.

It took till a shootout before the Hawks came up with the 2-1 shootout victory.  Corey Crawford had 38 saves and Richard Panik had 2 goals, including the shootout winner.

The Panthers came out controlling almost every part of the 1st period, except the most important stat, the score.  Panik broke out of a 17-game scoreless streak as he capitalized on a loose puck and deked Panther goalie, Roberto Luongo, to get the Blackhawks on the board late in the period, and a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Crawford and Luongo starred in the 2nd period as they both made some great saves to keep the puck out of the net.

In the 3rd, it was the ageless wonder, Jaromir Jagr, who took a rebound during a Panther power play, and poked it past Crawford to tie the game at 1.  For the remainder of regulation, it turned into a goalie clinic between Crawford and Luongo, as the game headed  to overtime.  Florida had over a minute of power play time during the OT, but the Hawks killed the penalty.  In the last seconds, Crawford came up huge again to stop a breakaway to force things to a shootout.

In the first round, Patrick Kane was stopped by Luongo.  Crawford then stopped Vincent Trochek.  Artemi Panarin was up for the Hawks in the 2nd round and deked Luongo with a filthy move into an open net.  Crawford then stopped Aleksander Barkov.  It was up to Richard Panik to get the game-winner, and he did so with a quick wrist shot that beat Luongo.

Notable Mentions:  Jaromir Jagr scored his 753rd career goal in the 3rd period.  Artem Anisimov left the game in the 3rd period when he took a Duncan Keith slapshot off the inside of his right ankle.  The Hawks blocked 18 shots during the game.  Brian Campbell with 5, and Niklas Hjalmarsson with 4, led the way.

3 Stars of The Game
1st - CHI - Corey Crawford - 38 saves, .974 SV%
 2nd - CHI - Artemi Panarin - SO goal
3rd - FLA - Roberto Luongo - 33 saves, .970 SV%

Next game: Thursday, December 1st, Home vs. New Jersey Devils (10-7-5), 7:30PM CT, TV-CSN-CH, RADIO - WGN720AM

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!