The Chicago Blackhawks are in the annual surge late in the season. In the last few weeks they have overtaken the Minnesota Wild for the top spot in the Central Division.
On Saturday night, Ryan Hartman scored with just 17 seconds left in extra time to edge 
the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1.
“It was great, I was out there for a while, I was pretty tired, but I saw a break for a 2-on-1,” Hartman said. “[Artemi] Panarin made a good pass and I’m glad I wasn’t offside.”
Corey Crawford was solid the nets and made 25 stops as the Hawks improved to 46-20-5.
“He’s always standing on his head, he keeps us in a lot of games and he always gives us a chance to win each night,” Hartman said. “We’re lucky to have him back there. Once again, he stood on his head and made some big saves in overtime.”
The Hawks have gone from trailing the Wild to leading them by five points as Minnesota is mired in a four-game skid.
“We want to keep playing well. We didn’t give up much tonight, the pace was pretty even in the game,” Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville said. “Both teams had their turns but not a lot of turns. But hey, we’ll see what plays out, we’ll keep trying to push ahead and see how it goes.”
Auston Matthews was the lone goal scorer for the Maple Leafs.
John Hayden scored his first career NHL goal for the Hawks to tie the game 1-1.
“It was awesome,” Hayden said. “It was pretty surreal, especially in this building with this environment.”
WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Maple Leafs highlights
Frederik Andersen made 37 saves in taking the loss as the Leafs dropped to 32-23-15.
“I thought it was a good game, it was tight, tight, tight,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “They had the puck lots, but in saying that, I didn’t think we gave up quality chances at all. They’re a good team, a veteran team. You’re disappointed to lose; you’d like to win that game obviously.”
Toronto leads the New York Islanders by a single point in the race for the second wild card spot.
The Isles lost Saturday to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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