Toews, Soderblom help Blackhawks defeat Kings in OT

CHICAGO -- Jonathan Toews scored 1:31 into overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at United Center on Thursday.

Kings forward Kevin Fiala could not control a deflected puck in front of the net. Jake McCabe picked it up and found Toews for a tap-in at the far post.
Toews has seven goals in 11 games. The Blackhawks captain scored 12 goals in 71 games last season.
"You try to live and learn a little bit and figure out what's not working," Toews said. "But at the end of the day, I think, I always come in prepared and excited to play, and sometimes when pucks aren't going in, it's usually just a sign that maybe you're over-prepared and overthinking things, and [I] tend to get myself into those positions a time or two over the years. But right now, it's fun to just go play. I know we were talking about expectations a second ago, and there weren't really any for our team and for myself, especially this year."

Jason Dickinson scored, and Soderblom made 32 saves for his first NHL win in his sixth game for the Blackhawks (5-4-2), who had lost four straight (0-2-2).
"I feel great," Soderblom said. "It was a fun game to play in and I'm glad to pick up my first win. It was fun. Yeah, it finally comes. I'm super happy. I felt good all day, morning skate and warmup. I've been feeling good all day."
Blake Lizotte scored, and Jonathan Quick made 17 saves for the Kings (6-6-1), who finished 1-1-1 on their road trip.
"We talked about fixing some things after the Dallas game (a 5-2 loss on Tuesday)," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "We saw it today. [We] did a real good job of it, gave up very few outnumbered rushes. We were pretty solid defensively, good through the neutral zone. We did a lot of things well tonight. We didn't get the win. Sometimes bounces go against you, and that's what happened to [Fiala] in front of the net. I didn't think we had as much polish as we've shown offensively."

Dickinson gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 12:54 of the second period when he tipped in a shot by Caleb Jones from the right point.
"I saw a little bit of an opening in the middle, and Caleb with his head up made eye contact with me, and I knew right away he was going to try to shoot for my stick," Dickinson said. "I just wanted to present it and make sure it didn't get tied up. Sure enough, 'Quick', didn't catch it right away, he started pushing up to the far side and it came back short side."
Lizotte tied it 1-1 at 16:24. Arthur Kaliyev carried skated into the right face-off circle and sent a pass to Lizotte, who tipped it past Soderblom on the forehand.
"I think as of late my line specifically has been struggling on the defensive end of it," Lizotte said. "Our focus now is just playing simple, smart hockey. When you can get pucks to go in, it's always nice.
"We kind of started the year scoring a lot but also giving up a lot. I think our team is starting to turn around where we play a little more defensive hockey, which I think most Kings fans are used to and most Kings players are used to. I think that's actually a good sign for us, that we're in these 1-1 games versus 6-5 shootouts. I think it's more our style and what our identity is and what we want to be."

The Blackhawks have played seven games decided by one goal, going 3-2-2.
"We talked after the second period," coach Luke Richardson said. "We thought it was a sloppy game, both teams, and who's going to clean up their game first? I thought we dug in hard and had some good O-zone time in the third period."
NOTES: Toews has scored in three straight games, has five goals in the past six and extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, two assists). It was his 16th overtime goal, sixth in NHL history behind Alex Ovechkin (24), Sidney Crosby (19), Jaromir Jagr (19), Brad Marchand (17) and Ilya Kovalchuk (17). … Fiala had his five-game point streak end (two goals, six assists).