After blowing a 2-0 lead, the New York Islanders recovered to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 in a shootout. David Rittich, in his fifth straight start, denied all three shots he faced in the shootout, with Bo Horvat scoring the shootout winner:
Here’s how the game happened:
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After serving as a healthy scratch on Sunday, Calum Ritchie got off to a hot start. He scored the fifth goal of the season at 2:56 of the first period after a strong feed from Simon Holmstrom:
Holmstrom has eight points (four goals, four assists) over his last nine games.
Horvat doubled the Islanders’ lead at 12:08 of the second, on the power play, after he rifled a Mathew Barzal feed from the bumper spot for his 21st of the season:
On the goal, Islanders No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer recorded the secondary assist, becoming the youngest defensman in NHL history to reach that milestone at 18 years and 116 days:
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But, then the Blackhawks came back to tie it.
First, it was Teuvo Teravainen who beat Rittich short side off an offensive zone face-off win at 15:31 of the second:
Then, with three seconds to play in the second, Nick Lardis scores while the Islanders were trying to kill off a double-minor high-sticking penalty to Bo Horvat:
UP NEXT: The Islanders host the Utah Mammoth on New Year’s Day at 3 PM ET.
