Jones scores 1st of season in OT, Blackhawks recover to defeat Islanders
Anderson, Dickinson each has goal, assist; New York drops 4th in row
By
Bruce Miles
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Jones, playing his 31st game, beat Ilya Sorokin with a wrist shot through traffic from the high slot.
“Yeah, that’s probably the biggest drought I’ve been in,” Jones said. “Nothing was going in, but it’s nice that I remember how to score. Put the puck to the net, and good things happen. I was in shock. I was like, ‘Wow, one actually went in, went in the back of the net.’ It’s a great feeling.”
Jones, Joey Anderson and Jason Dickinson each had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks (14-30-2), who had lost four of five (1-3-1). Petr Mrazek made 26 saves.
“There are points in his [scoring] column that could have been goals that were tips or really nice plays,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said of Jones. “I think it’s really nice to get rid of that zero in the column, especially [since] he’s used to producing more. More important, it was [fitting] for him to get that goal at the end because of the way he played defensively. Up and down the ice, I thought he was excellent, making the choice when to go and join the rush, helping offensively. But his 1-on-1s were excellent tonight.”
Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist, Noah Dobson had two assists, and Sorokin made 20 saves for the Islanders (19-15-11), who went 0-3-1 on their four-game road trip and are 1-5-1 in their past seven.
“I don’t feel the team’s anywhere near where it can be or should be,” New York coach Lane Lambert said. “We have some players on the team we clearly need more from.
“Clearly, it took us awhile to get our legs going. Once we did, I thought we generated a fair amount. And we were fine, and then we make a couple of mistakes as we’ve done at times this year when we’ve lost hockey games. We end up giving up goals and what turns out to be a pretty good second period turns out to be a terrible second period in a short, short time.”
Brock Nelson put the Islanders ahead 1-0 at 6:09 of the first period. He took a lead pass from Hudson Fasching and beat Mrazek from the bottom of the left circle.
Boris Katchouk tied it 1-1 at 18:07 of the second period with a wrist shot from the slot after his initial breakaway attempt was saved by Sorokin.
Anderson put in a pass from Colin Blackwell at the right post on a 2-on-1 rush for his first goal of the season to give Chicago a 2-1 lead at 19:14.
“It’s exciting,” Anderson said. “Anytime you can score in this league, it’s pretty cool. I had a couple chances a couple games ago I would have liked to maybe drop, so it gets a little frustrating. [Blackwell and Dickinson] made great plays to set that one up. I made sure to put it in the net. Hopefully that can lead to some more opportunities like that and finishing chances we get.”
The Blackhawks pushed it to 3-1 at 5:10 of the third period when Dickinson scored in front after a give-and-go with Anderson.
Bo Horvat cut it to 3-2 at 6:38, taking a cross-ice pass from Mathew Barzal and beating Mrazek with a snap shot from the left circle.
“We have no choice but to start winning some hockey games,” Horvat said. “We’re in a little bit of a lull here, lots of hockey left to be played, but we have to put it together quick or we’re going to see ourselves keep dropping in the standings. It starts with me, it starts with our top guys being better, and we’ve got to be better here going down the stretch.”
Palmieri tied it 3-3 at 12:50 with a wraparound.
“There’s leadership in that room,” Lambert said. “We’ve got guys who need to play better. The jolt needs to come from within.”
NOTES: Jones’ goal was the second-fastest scored in overtime by a Blackhawks defenseman; Doug Wilson scored at 18 seconds against the Minnesota North Stars on Nov. 2, 1989. … Forward Kyle MacLean, son of assistant coach John MacLean, made his NHL debut for the Islanders; he won four of 10 face-offs in 10:21 of ice time.
