Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson thought he played poorly

SUNRISE http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-patrick-roy-jersey , Fla. (AP) — Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson thought he played poorly a night earlier and things looked even worse early Saturday.He rebounded to deliver a winning finish.Gustafsson scored 2:32 into overtime as the Chicago rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Florida Panthers.Gustafsson wristed in his third goal of the season to beat Florida goalie James Reimer, snapping Chicago’s two-game overall losing streak and eight-game road skid.Admittedly, Gustafsson played poorly in Tampa in the Blackhawks’ 4-2 loss to the Lightning, but the Swedish blueliner said he wanted to do anything to help Chicago gain a win on the three-game road swing through Washington and Florida.“It was a tough first period for me. I think I was minus-3 after 10 minutes or whatever. It was real hard for me, but you have to go back out there and get back on your feet,” Gustafsson said.The Blackhawks had a pair of two-goal deficits against Florida, but battled back and Alex DeBrincat tied it with under 2 seconds play in regulation.“I thought the third period was as desperate as I have seen us. Clearly, we have to find a way to start that way and play every shift like it’s life or death. Good to see the response in the third,” Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said.Trailing 4-2 to start the third, Chicago recorded the first 11 shots of the period, and Alexandre Fortin scored his third goal at 9:52 short-handed after a steal before DeBrincat’s 10th goal tied it after Chicago pulled the goalie for an extra attacker.“It’s tough to score late. They’re bearing down and we’re trying to put pucks to the net. I got pretty lucky there. It snuck through the five-hole,” DeBrincat said.David Kampf and Patrick Kane also tallied for the Blackhawks. Gustav Forsling had two assists and Kampf added an assist for a three-point night.Goalie Cam Ward made his first start since Nov. 12 and stopped 34 shots.Mike Hoffman, Jared McCann, Aaron Ekblad and Frank Vatrano scored goals for the Panthers. Jonathan Huberdeau recorded a pair of assists.Reimer made 36 saves for the Panthers Womens Samuel Girard Jersey , who lost their third straight.Hoffman, who turned 29 on Saturday, put Florida up 1-0 at 5:28 of the first period when he one-timed his 11th goal on the power play. McCann added on when he deked left and roofed a backhander for his third goal at 13:40.“When you don’t play a full 60 minutes in this league, every team has good offensive players and they’ll make you pay for it. That’s kind of what happened here tonight,” Hoffman said.The Blackhawks opened the second fast and tied it inside six minutes.Kampf cut it to 2-1 just 49 seconds into the period when he skated past Ekblad on the right side and swept in his third goal past Reimer.Kane tied it with a deflection at 5:34 on a pass from Brandon Saad for his 13th goal, but Ekblad one-timed a pass from Hoffman for his fourth goal at 8:08.Huberdeau flipped a pass in front of Ward that Vatrano chipped in for his seventh goal at 11:30 for a 4-2 lead.“We gave them a little life, they took the game over. We had lots of opportunities at 4-2 to make it 5-2 and couldn’t get that fifth one,” said Florida coach Bob Boughner.“There’s some good things, but obviously you want to forget the last 10 minutes of the third period.”NOTES: Kane’s goal was his first since Nov. 8 against Carolina, a stretch of seven scoreless games. … Gustafsson played in his 100th career NHL game. … Hoffman has scored a point in all four NHL games he has played on his birthday. … Florida recalled G Michael Hutchinson from AHL affiliate Springfield on an emergency basis. No. 1 goalie Roberto Luongo was injured late in the first period of Friday’s 4-1 loss at Carolina and is day-to-day.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Host Vegas on TuesdayPanthers: Host New Jersey on Monday COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) After dropping the first two playoff games at home in overtime, the Washington Capitals picked up momentum that only got stronger as they took down the Columbus Blue Jackets in four straight.Now they’ll strive to keep the intensity high as they advance to a second-round rematch with the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Capitals, who manhandled the Blue Jackets 6-3 on Monday to cap the opening round series, are looking to avenge second-round playoff losses to Pittsburgh in each of the past two seasons.”I can’t wait to take a step forward Semyon Varlamov Jersey ,” said Washington star forward Alex Ovechkin, who had two goals on Monday, including his 50th playoff tally. ”They know how to play, they know the pressure. It’s a huge series for us.”Goaltender Braden Holtby relieved a struggling Philipp Grubauer in Game 2 and was great the rest of the way. He had 35 saves Monday in a game in which his team was outshot 38-28. Fifteen of the saves were in the third period when the desperate Blue Jackets turned up the heat.”(He’s) been fantastic,” Ovechkin said. ”He’s stepping up big-time. He’s top goalie in the league, and he showed it today and he showed it in the series.”For his part, Washington coach Barry Trotz wasn’t ready to talk about Pittsburgh yet after a taut opening-round series.”Please let me breathe,” he said. ”We haven’t taken a breath since this started.”Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist, and Dimitry Orlov, Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller also scored Monday for Washington, which never trailed in OT in Game 5 on Saturday. The Capitals won each of the three games in Columbus.One of the stories for Washington was its ability to defend Columbus’ power play. After the Blue Jackets went 4 for 8 with a man advantage in the first two games, the Caps held them to 0 for 16 in the last four. Meanwhile, Washington took good advantage of Columbus penalties, scoring on the power play in each of the six games.”I think going into the year there wasn’t a lot of people who said we would finish first in the Metro Sergei Boikov Jersey , and we did that,” Trotz said. ”And it’s just creating a pretty consistent culture, and it’s having good players too. It was a tremendous test for us. We didn’t get off to a good start and had to dig ourselves out.”Trotz said he leaned on veterans Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and others to keep the Capitals on an even keel through the tumult of the season.”We’ve had lots of different adversity through this year and in the past, and we’ve grown up a little bit in some ways,” he said. ”We understand that our core group is really, really strong, they believe in each other. We’ve got a lot of young guys in the room. We’ve had to rely on our core to push us forward, and we have.”—