Chicago Blackhawks rally in third to topple New York Rangers 4-3 -NHL Update
Chicago proved the miracles can happen if you just work hard enough as the Blackhawks made an amazing comeback in the final period of regulation to takedown reigning Eastern Conference champions, New York Rangers, 4-3, Friday night, March 9, 2012, at the
sold-out United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Going into the matchup, head coach of the Rangers, John Tortorella was of the view that his team was finding ways to lose these past few days and the situation certainly did not improve in their matchup against Chicago.
"I think we're beating ourselves sometimes in a game and finding ways to lose," Tortorella said. "We're just going to continue to keep working on our game and chip out the mistakes and see if we can get a little traction here."
Blackhawks handed New York their third straight loss and grabbed their fourth consecutive win in the past five contests to gradually make a comeback in the Western Conference rankings.
Artem Anisimov took the first goal of the night and his 14th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season with less than a minute remaining in the opening period.
Andrew Shaw got the equaliser at 14:28 into the second, but New York could not have believed what was awaiting them in the final round of regulation.
Brandon Prust gave the visitors the lead nearly midway through the third, putting the thousands of Chicago fans on the edge of their seats but Blackhawks were not going to take it for long.
Patrick Sharp triggered the scoring spree with his 26th of the year at 13:02, followed by Johnny Oduya nearly a minute later and Patrick Kane on the empty net at 19:07 to finalise the match.
Rangers were not going to give up as Brad Richards attempted at brining New York back in the match with his lifeline goal at 19:19 but Chicago managed to keep the visitors out in the final seconds to take the two points.
Chicago has the next at home against an up and down Los Angeles Kings team looking to make a comeback into the playoff race but as the game is in Blackhawks territory on Sunday, things do not look up for the visiting club.
Rangers have to rebound and have an ample opportunity as they kick off a seven-game home stand on Sunday against the struggling New York Islanders the same day.
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