TAKEAWAYS: Korchinski Produces Overtime Winner Against Toronto

In a Friday afternoon matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kevin Korchinski notched the overtime-winning goal to help the Chicago Blackhawks secure a 4-3 victory. 

The rookie defenseman joined Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev to continue their play-making abilities to try and earn the game-winner. Korchinski described the scramble he took to create more puck movement that helped him create a lucky bounce to achieve the win. 

“We had a good thing going and we're just kind of circling the zone just trying to create chaos,” Korchinski said. “We had a lot of plays there that almost worked out and finally got a bounce and got it in the back of the net.”

The Maple Leafs opened the scoring to take the lead early in the first period. Despite a few mishaps with the Blackhawks, Jason Dickinson scored Chicago’s first goal to tie things up before the end of the first. 

Toronto continued to score in the first few minutes of the second period, but a momentum change would allow Chicago to come back in the third period to bring the team back to life. For Dickinson, he thought the Blackhawks found a way to translate their emotions into their game to send it into overtime. 

“I think it comes down to getting physical, getting engaged and being invested emotionally,” Dickinson said. “That's what the result was, but to get the emotion, you have to turn it on inside first and then it translates to the ice.” 

Joey Anderson agreed with Dickinson’s statement on playing with their emotions that kept the team going and finding an even-keel mindset that allowed them to create strong shifts that carried throughout the contest. 

“We were able to get out of it with a couple of good shifts and rolling,” Anderson said. “It just kind of bled through the rest of the game and guys stuck together tonight.” 

Head coach Luke Richardson noticed a spark of energy coming not only from his players but from the fans at the United Center as well. 

With their second win at home this season, he felt that the crowd valued the players and the way that they played in the afternoon matchup but also gave the team some life with the energy they created. 

“I think the building felt it and they really appreciated the play, especially in the second period on and that got more lively, especially in overtime,” Richardson said. “It was pretty loud and I think that just energized the team.”

Not only did the win provide the team with some good energy, but it also gave Arvid Soderblom a confidence boost with his second win of the season. Richardson noted that the netminder played well in some games earlier, but players simply did not give him any goal support to showcase his talents.

With some hard losses over the last few weeks, the win brought some positivity into the locker room to help the Blackhawks try and build some momentum as they move forward into other matchups to try and create their first winning streak of the season. 

“There's been a lot of emotions going around with a lot going on and a positive win at home that was hard fought doing the right things, details, all of that leads into a really good feeling in this locker room to head forward,” Dickinson said.

DICKINSON NETS FIRST HAT TRICK 

For the first time in his NHL career, Dickinson netted a hat trick to help send the Blackhawks into overtime against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday afternoon. 

In his second career multi-goal game, the veteran forward didn’t feel much different as he entered the matchup. He thought he stuck to his usual style of play that allowed the puck to find the back of the net. 

“I just played my game, and I just did what I did,” Dickinson said. “I think I shot more pucks tonight than I normally do and it just happened to be a little bit more accurate than usual.”