Donato goal caps comeback win for Blackhawks against Capitals

CHICAGO – Ryan Donato scored at 17:42 of the third period to lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory against the Washington Capitals at United Center on Tuesday. Donato moved across the goal line from the right side and tucked the puck into the net to complete Chicago's comeback.

“I mean, sometimes you black out on those type of plays that happen so fast,” Donato said. “At that time of the game, it’s sort of similar to the last play, last game (Connor Bedard’s late game-winning goal in a 5-3 victory against the Islanders on Sunday), like there's not much time left in the game, just take the puck hard to the net and see what happens.”

Arvid Soderblom made 20 saves for the Blackhawks (11-19-2). Ilya Mikheyev scored a short-handed goal and had an assist. Teuvo Teravainen had three assists.

“It's great because we've been in spots where we've been up a couple goals and end up losing, so it feels good to kind of be on the other side of things, and knowing that whatever the score is, it could be a lot worse, right?” Donato said “(Soderblom) played a great game, but being down a couple goals and being able to battle back just goes to show we can come back in games like that.”

Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane scored first-period goals to give Washington a 2-0 lead. Logan Thompson made 20 saves for the Capitals (21-8-2), who lost 3-1 at Dallas on Monday. Travel issues forced the Capitals to stay in Dallas overnight, and they didn’t land in Chicago until about 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

“I just didn’t think we had it from the start of the game right to the finish,” said Washington coach Spencer Carbery. “We had nothing. The excuse that I’m sure will be dropped is the travel and that, but (we) should still be able to get through that. We just, for whatever reason, didn’t have it.”

Dubois opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 4:16 of the first period. He took the puck from Chicago defenseman Louis Crevier, skated around him and put a soft shot past Soderblom, with the puck barely crossing the goal line.

Mangiapane made it 2-0 at 13:18. He got around defenseman TJ Brodie and scored on the forehand while skating across the front of the net.

“I didn’t think I had too much space there, so I just wanted to kind of take it to the net,” Mangiapane said. “I was able to get middle ice there to be able to get that in. Definitely nice to get on the scoresheet after missing last night there. But, yeah, it’s a tough one to lose here.”

Mangiapane missed the game on Monday because of illness.

“I felt OK,” he said. “A lot of fluids, sugars, things like that. I was good enough to play. Felt pretty good.”

Mikheyev scored short-handed at 51 seconds of the third period to bring the Blackhawks to within 2-1. Mikheyev took a pass from Teravainen at the red line and got past Jakob Chychrun in the offensive zone before putting a backhander over Thompson. It was Chicago’s first short-handed goal of the season.

Teravainen had his second straight three-point game.

“The biggest thing with him is skating,” said Blackhawks coach Anders Sorensen. “When he’s involved and engaged and playing on the interior of the ice and supporting that way, you see some of the things he did today. That’s the biggest thing you notice with him. That’s what we encourage with him, and maybe that was lacking a bit for a while there. Seems he definitely found that rhythm again.”

Brodie tied the game for Chicago at 14:07 on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

“We had two really, really good individual plays, and the rest was kind of just sloppy,” said Capitals defenseman John Carlson. “From the whole game, I don’t think we played very well. It seemed like we were a little disjointed, a little disoriented. We weren’t our usual selves. If we play even close to how we do with a two-goal lead, I think the game’s a lot different. But we didn’t, and you leave yourself susceptible for stuff to happen.”

NOTES: Bedard played in his 100th NHL game. His 58 assists are tied with Artemi Panarin and Bill Hay for the fifth-most through as many games among players to debut with the Blackhawks. Terry Ruskowski (78), Denis Savard (75), Patrick Kane (65) and Bill Mosienko (60) make up the top four. … Teravainen became the sixth Blackhawks player since 1996-97 to collect three or more assists in the third period of a game. The others: Alex Debrincat (Feb. 28, 2021), Patrick Kane (Jan. 20, 2019 & Oct. 18, 2016), Nick Schmaltz (Nov. 15, 2017), Duncan Keith (Jan. 3, 2014) and Jason Williams (Oct. 20, 2007) … The Capitals’ Lars Eller recorded the 231st assist of his career, the second-most among active Denmark-born players behind Nikolaj Ehlers (272).