TAKEAWAYS: Kurashev Secures Overtime Winner Against Golden Knights

With 25 seconds remaining in the Blackhawks’ power play, Philipp Kurashev notched his first goal of the season to earn the Blackhawks third victory. By the end of the contest, the team would also hand the Vegas Golden Knights its’ first loss of the season with a final result of 4-3 in overtime. 

While Kurashev felt it might not have been the prettiest goal scored, he felt accomplished to record a goal in his second game back. 

“It was not the best looking four-on-three I’ve ever saw, but we got it done,” Kurashev said. “So, I was just trying to get the puck on the net and luckily it went in.”

Early in the matchup, the Golden Knights took the lead early to go up 2-0 before Ryan Donato opened the scoring for the Blackhawks. From there, the momentum began to shift. 

Connor Bedard noted the energy that Chicago began to build off came from the production that every line provided whether they scored a goal or not. 

“The momentum was huge, and we had some really good shifts in there,” Bedard said. “You have to hope that goals come and work for them and we did that well.” 

Later in the game, the Blackhawks would lose defenseman Alex Vlasic after he sustained a hit in the second period. At the start of the third period, the team announced that he would not play for the rest of the night. 

Despite being one defenseman down, head coach Luke Richardson described that others began to step up to fill Vlasic’s role. By the end of the contest, the second-year coach felt that Kevin Korchinski and Wyatt Kaiser learned from their new experience and hopes to see more from them as the season continues. 

“I thought the two of them really played with a lot of composure and poise and we're going to need that going forward,” Richardson said. “So, that was a good sign and it's great experience for them.”

After the Blackhawks snapped its’ three-game losing streak, Kurashev now hopes they can use the momentum they built against the defending Stanley Cup Champions in other matchups this season. 

“It's great for us because we're young team and we beat the defending champs so it's a great confidence boost for us,” Kurashev said. “I think we can learn a lot from it and take good things from it and hopefully we can build on [that].”