Shea Theodore snapped a 20-game goal drought with the winning score in overtime as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3, on Saturday night.
Theodore, who last scored a goal in an 8-3 victory over the Blackhawks on Nov. 27, also at the United Center, skated past defenseman Carl Dahlstrom down the right side and then one-handed a shot toward the goal that hit Dahlstrom's stick and caromed through the pads of goalie Collin Delia.
Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist for Vegas to extend his points streak to a team-record nine consecutive games. Paul Stastny and Ryan Carpenter also scored goals and Max Pacioretty added two assists for the Golden Knights.
Marc-Andre Fleury, playing in his 778th game to move pass Tom Barrasso into 20th place on the NHL's all-time games played list for goalies, finished with 20 saves to pick up his league-leading 26th victory.
Alex DeBrincat scored two goals and Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist for Chicago. Erik Gustafsson added two assists while Delia had 29 saves for the Blackhawks.
Chicago took a 2-0 lead in the first period lead behind goals by DeBrincat, who backhanded in a rebound of a Dominik Kahun shot, and Kane, who fired in a wrist shot from the bottom of the right circle during a power play. Kane tied Denis Savard for fourth in team history with nine 25-goal seasons, trailing only Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita who had 13 each.
Vegas, which just missed scoring late in the first period when Oscar Lindberg hit the crossbar twice on the same shift, cut it to 2-1 early in the second period when Tuch slid in a rebound of a Pacioretty shot into the left side of the net for his 15th goal of the season.
DeBrincat answered six minutes later with a power play goal, the ninth in nine games for the Blackhawks, when he one-timed a crossing pass from Kane from the dot in the left circle. But Vegas closed to 3-2 on a Carpenter goal with just 54 seconds to go in the period.
Stastny tied it with a rebound goal from the left side of the net at the 15:56 mark of the third period to send the game into overtime.
--Field Level Media
Vegas | Chicago | |
Paul Stastny 2 | Points | Alex Debrincat 2 |
Paul Stastny 1 | Goals | Alex Debrincat 2 |
Max Pacioretty 2 | Assists | Erik Gustafsson 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Alex Debrincat 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Marc-Andre Fleury .870 | Save Percentage | Collin Delia .882 |
Marc-Andre Fleury 20 | Saves | Collin Delia 30 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Vegas | 34 | 4 | 0-2 | 2-4 | 8 | 29 |
Chicago | 23 | 3 | 2-4 | 2-2 | 4 | 27 |