ST. LOUIS – Patrick Kane described Artemi Panarin as “an undercover tough, wiry kid,” and said he wondered recently how the Russian forward would do if he ever got in a fight. He soon found out.
“He did amazing,” Kane said of Panarin, who fought Scottie Upshall after hitting Upshall face-first into the glass. “He’s a tough kid.”
Fighting probably will never be Panarin’s strong suit but finishing is, and he had that on Wednesday, too.
Panarin scored the overtime winner and Corey Crawford stopped 27 of 28 shots as the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 on Wednesday. The Blackhawks have now won seven in a row and eight of their last nine. Their last regulation loss was Oct. 21, a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
With the victory may have come another loss. Artem Anisimov left in the second period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Coach Joel Quenneville said Anisimov was day-to-day. Asked if a concussion spotter pulled Anisimov, Quenneville said, “we don’t like talking about injuries. I’m not going to say what it was but I don’t think that was part of it.”
Panarin was serving five minutes for fighting as the Blackhawks entered overtime with 24 seconds of power-play time remaining (delay of game from Alex Pietrangelo). The Blues killed that off but one second later Panarin hit the ice and got the game-winner. It was his sixth goal of the season.
“He was ready to go,” Quenneville said of the rested Panarin. He didn’t mind the fight, either. “You gotta love the way he competes. Give him credit. He got the Gordie Howe [hat trick] tonight.”
NHL
Indeed, Panarin had an assist on Marian Hossa’s seventh goal of the season to complete that trick.
[RELATED: Five things from Blackhawks-Blues]
Crawford was once again stellar for the Blackhawks; his biggest save was late in the third period on Vladimir Tarasenko, a stop that looked similar to Scott Darling’s stop on Stars forward Patrick Eaves on Sunday.
“Yeah it was kind of a broken play in front of the net there,” Crawford said. “I kind of saw he was going on the backhand. He didn’t shoot right away. He kind of wound up with it. I just tried to force it in there and it gave me enough time to get over.”
Crawford kept the Blues at bay until Pietrangelo’s shot got through him with 2:11 remaining in regulation. The Blackhawks challenged for goaltender interference – Jori Lehtera was planted in front of the net – but the goal stood following review. It wouldn’t matter. Just 25 seconds into overtime, Panarin was finishing things off.
The Blackhawks are winning in a variety of ways. Mostly it’s goaltending but they played a good all-around contest against the Blues. You didn’t expect to see Panarin fight in this one, but you weren’t surprised to see him finish.