TAKEAWAYS: Blackhawks Suffer Overtime Loss in Buffalo

After leading 3-1 heading into the third period, the Sabres would capitalize late in the gameto send the two teams into overtime. The Blackhawks would suffer in their second straight loss after falling to the Sabres, 4-3.
Tage Thompson would cut the Blackhawks lead after recording the two goals in the third period. Head coach Luke Richardson felt the team played well in the start of the third but thought the team was more focused on maintaining the lead instead of playing the game.
"I thought we did a pretty good job in the first part of the third period," Richardson said. "But unfortunately, we had just a couple of mistakes in the D-zone and not clearing pucks and trying to protect the lead instead of just keep playing and playing smartly."

LEAD TAKEN IN THIRD PERIOD

Towards the start of the third period, Sam Lafferty agreed that the team was focused and ready at the start, but felt things slip away allowing the Sabres to take over the lead.
"I think things were going pretty good," Lafferty said. "We were skating, we were possessing [the puck in] the O-zone and we just got away from that a little bit."
Richardson believes that Buffalo was able to build momentum after their penalty killed stepped onto the ice in the third, which was comparable to Chicago's loss on Thursday night to the Edmonton Oilers.
"Last game, we didn't have the lead, we just lost the game in the last minute, which it's the same outcome," Richardson said. "We need to find ways to get to the next step."

SODERBLOM REMAINS CONFIDENT

Still looking for his first win of his NHL career, Arvid Soderblom felt confident that this was the best start out of his four games played. Throughout the night, he would make 41 saves off 45 shots faced.
"Personally, I felt pretty good out there today with lot of good saves," Soderblom said. "I felt like I played my game and did my best. It always sucks to lose but I feel like we had a pretty good game."
During Friday's press conference, Richardson described Soderblom as a calm and compact netminder in the few practices he has seen from him. Tonight, he felt that the young goaltender was able to maintain his composure and help the team by making big saves during key moments despite the end results.
"He played great, he really deserved better tonight," Richardson said. "He showed a lot of poise out there. It was nice to see."

UPCOMING

The team will travel back to United Center tomorrow to take on the Minnesota Wild with a 6 p.m. scheduled puck drop.