Kane extends point streak to 21 games, but 'Hawks fall to Sens in OT
OTTAWA, Ontario — On a night Chicago's Patrick Kane hit a milestone, Mike Hoffman was the difference-maker for Ottawa.
Hoffman scored his second goal of the game 30 seconds into overtime as the Senators beat the Blackhawks 4-3 Thursday night.
The winner came as a relief for Hoffman, who had hit the post in the dying seconds of regulation with the game tied.
"I think I had (Corey) Crawford beat, but didn't manage to find the back, and then in overtime there's always going to be chances so if that one didn't go in they were probably going to go down to the same thing, 2-on-1. That's kind of how 3-on-3 works," said Hoffman.
Hoffman now has an eight-game point streak (eight goals, three assists). While impressive, it pales in comparison to Kane's 21-game point streak.
With a first-period goal, Kane — who also had two assists — tied Bobby Hull's franchise-best scoring streak set in 1971-72.
"Right now when you're tied with anything with Bobby Hull it's pretty special considering the career that guy had," said Kane. "But like I said, not too worried about it."
Bobby Ryan and Mark Stone also scored for the Senators, and Craig Anderson — making his ninth straight start — stopped 35 shots.
The Senators played with 11 forwards and seven defensemen due to a number of recent injuries and say they will gain confidence from beating the defending Stanley Cup champions.
"They're still a highly regarded team in the league," Ryan said. "For us to do it banged up, to do it when you're trying to create an identity at home, you hope it can be a rallying point for us."
Artemi Panarin also had a goal and two assists for Chicago and Artem Anisimov had a goal and a helper. Crawford made 23 saves.
With the game tied 2-2, Stone gave the Senators the lead at the three-minute mark of the third as he was able to bat the puck out of the air and tuck it in behind Crawford to the awe of the 17,171 on hand at Canadian Tire Centre.
However, the Blackhawks were able to tie things midway through the period as Kane dropped the puck back behind the Senators net and Anisimov scored from a sharp angle.
The second period belonged to the Blackhawks after falling behind 2-0.
Chicago made it a one-goal game as Kane scored his 16th of the season with the Blackhawks enjoying a two-man advantage.
"He's an outstanding player and what he can do with the puck (is great)," said Anderson. "He makes all the players around him better and it just seems like the puck is magnetic on his stick and he always seems to find somebody."
Chicago tied the game at the 16-minute mark as Panarin was able to get into the slot unchallenged and beat Anderson short-handed, with Kane picking up an assist on the goal.
Hossa nearly made it 3-2 as he had a breakaway late in the period, but Anderson was able to just get a piece of the puck and keep it on the goal line.
The Senators were clearly the better team in the opening 20 minutes and were able to jump out to a 2-0 lead.
"(Ottawa) is a pretty fast team, I think it's something we expected, how fast they were and how they like to go on offense," Kane said.
"They're not afraid to push the pace and try and score goals. We knew that coming in, we knew our best bet was probably to play a more defensive game and to try and get chances going the other way off their mistakes. I thought we did that for the most part, but at the end of the day they had more goals than us."
Hoffman extended his scoring streak to eight games as he picked up his team-leading 12th goal in the opening minutes of the game.
The Senators then made it 2-0 with a power-play goal from Ryan. Stone created the perfect screen and Ryan was able to find an opening to beat Crawford.
NOTES
The Senators will be without LW Milan Michalek for at least two weeks (broken index finger). ... C Mika Zibanejad also missed the game with an upper-body injury.
