After a rough 3-2 loss to begin the 2015 season at the hands of the New York Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks were ready to get their first win of the 2015-2016 regular season on Friday night. Corey Crawford had gotten out his jitters it appeared after the opening period in Wednesday's game, and the Blackhawks started him again hoping for a more dominant performance that they had seen in the second and third period against the Rangers.

He certainly did not disappoint in the opening period, as he continued his scoreless streak through three periods to give the Blackhawks an opportunity to take an early lead. Calvin de Haan got called for hooking, but the Blackhawks could not take advantage of their power play at this time. A few minutes later in the period though, Artemi Panarin served a penalty for the Blackhawks because they had too many men on the ice. Panarin is going to be a target early on as de Haan had hooked him earlier, and then they put the Russian Rookie in the penalty box for this one. But who would have guessed that the Blackhawks would take the lead while on a penalty kill? But that's exactly what happened, as Artem Anisimov was able to light up the lamp to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead that would remain that way for the rest of the first period.

John Tavares though wanted to keep the Islanders alive in the second period, and that's just what he was able to do. Through some nice passes from Johnny Boychuk and Casey Cizikas, Tavares was able to get the puck and get one by Crawford with 14:38 left in the second period. This had to be troubling for the Blackhawks too because Cizikas had just gotten back on the ice after getting a penalty on Blackhawk's defenseman Brent Seabrook for roughing. About ten minutes later though, Patrick Kane scored his first of two goals on the evening, as he was able to get a second goal on the night behind the back of Thomas Greiss. His goal was assisted by both Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith. To be fair, having the three of them on one line together is very difficult to stop. The Blackhawks would then end up with a 2-1 lead that would remain that way until early in the third period.

The Islanders were able to tie it up a mere 78 seconds into the final period, as Marek Zidlicky was able to get another one past Crawford with assists from Brock Nelson and Nikolay Kulemin. There weren't any more goals scored in the final period, despite both teams getting 21 other shots on goal combined in the final period. The Islanders had a golden opportunity as well when Toews was called for interference on de Haan. But they would remain shutout on the power play as no one scored any power play goals heading into the overtime period tied up at two points a piece.

Shortly into the overtime period, Nick Leddy was called for slashing Marian Hossa. Hossa quickly got some revenge, getting the puck to Kane with some help from Keith as Kane recorded his second goal of the night as the Blackhawks got the only power play goal of the game to end the night on the ice in Brooklyn. At least the Islanders were able to get it to overtime to salvage a point in their first game of the season.

Next up for the Chicago Blackhawks (1-1, 2 points) is a repeat performance against the New York Islanders (0-1, 1 point) as they will face each other again Saturday night as they play at 8:30 PM Eastern time at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

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About the author
Caleb Wahlgren
I will not deny that I am a big fan of the Green Bay Packers. But I love the NFL and want to see the very best for it.