Blackhawks Improved From Being Down 4, 5-4 OT Victory vs. San Jose Sharks | 3/23/2024

It was a negative start for the Blackhawks as the San Jose Sharks had a 2-0 lead in the first, however, Chicago put a strong effort into the second and the third with a great comeback. Just 18 seconds into overtime, Seth Jones scored the game-winning goal for the 5-4 final on Saturday, March 23rd at the SAP Center. It was a much-needed win for the Hawks after two poor losses, and it was the fifth game in team history that they won after trailing by four goals or more.

Blackhawks lineup against the Sharks:

Johnson – Bedard – Kurashev

Foligno – Dickinson – Anderson

Reichel – Athanasiou – Raddysh

Donato – Entwistle – Slaggert

Vlasic – Jones

Korchinski – Megna

Kaiser – Zaitsev

Mrazek

Soderblom

Sharks lineup against the Blackhawks:

Kostin – Granlund – Zetterlund

Barabanov – Kunin – Zadina

Bordeleau – Sturm – Bailey

Eklund – Carpenter – MacDonald

Ferraro – Burroughs

Vlasic – Addison

Thrun – Rutta

Cooley

Blackwood

   In the first period, Thomas Bordeleau began the scoring early at 16:07 on the power play when he tipped in Fabian Zetterlund’s shot for a 1-0 lead. Bordeleau scored his second of the night to make it 2-0 at 9:43 off a backhanded pass from Justin Bailey with a wrist shot for his sixth goal of the season.

   Fabian Zetterlund extended San Jose’s lead to 3-0 only 16 seconds into the middle frame. He scored from the blue line with a wrist shot before scoring his second of the game to make it 4-0 on the power play at 18:36. At 13:15, Ryan Donato put Chicago on the board when he sent a backhanded shot past Devin Cooley glove side. Donato set up Tyler Johnson from behind the net, and Johnson cut it to 4-2 with 6:40 remaining in the second.

   Seth Jones cut it to 4-3 at 13:40 of the third period for his fifth goal of the season. Jones had sent a wrist shot through traffic past Devin Cooley. With just seconds left in regulation, Philipp Kurashev quickly tied it to 4-4, and not long later, in overtime, Jones scored his second of the night for the game-winning goal and the 5-4 final with a wrist shot.

Ryan Donato on the game: “I think it’s tough. You go down four-nothing, we were very disappointed in ourselves but we were down two-nothing last time to these guys and we came back. I think we knew we had a chance. We just got to play the right way and I think we simplified. When you do the right things, usually a good thing happens.”

Seth Jones on how they started and what they wanted to do: “It was quite the rollercoaster. We hated our first period right from the get-go. I didn’t come ready to play tonight, I take responsibility for that. Kind of set the tone and we didn’t get off to a good start, so that was on me – We really wanted to be more physical, we didn’t win enough puck battles in the first period, and we said we were going to hit everything in the second and third, and I thought we did that.”

Notes:

– Ryan Donato had a goal and two assists, both Tyler Johnson and Philipp Kurashev had a goal and an assist, and Connor Bedard recorded his 34th assist of the season.

– Petr Mrazek made a total of 26 saves for Chicago, and Devin Cooley made 26 saves for San Jose in his second NHL game in his home debut.

– Thomas Bordeleau is the fifth rookie in San Jose Sharks history, in the past 10 years, with a multi-goal period. The others doing so are; Scott Reedy (April 19, 2022), Jonathan Dahlen (October 19, 2021), Matt Nieto (February 3, 2014), and Tomas Hertl (October 8 and October 5, 2013)

– Fabian Zetterlund had two goals and an assist. Both of the goals scored by Zetterlund were marked as the second-fastest two goals to start a period in San Jose Sharks history, behind Brent Burns (43 seconds into the second period on February 11th, 2015.)

Three Stars of the Game: Ryan Donato, Fabian Zetterlund, and Seth Jones.