In Chicago Tuesday, the Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews scored his ninth of the year to get the Hawks even with the Florida Panthers and force extra time.
Patrick Kane scored his 11th of the year midway through the extra session to give the 
Hawks a 3-2 win.
“It’s huge,” Kane said. “It’s huge. I think we were all thinking going into this three-game homestand take it one at a time and try to get two points every night, maybe five or six points. It was nice to get six. Good little homestand for us.”
The Hawks improved to 15-11-5 with the win.
“I think we’ve had shifts in the last couple games where we’re really getting that confidence not only coming out of our own zone with the puck, but in the neutral zone, finding each other with time and space, and the offensive zone of cycling it well and just getting it away from pressure,” Toews said.
Brandon Saad also scored in regulation for Chicago.
Nick Bjugstad and Jamie McGinn had the Panthers’ goals.
“I think it was a gutsy effort on our part. I thought that we got contributions from the lineup. We all played hard. We played 60 minutes. You know back-to-back is never easy, especially against a team like this,” Florida head coach Bob Boughner said after the tough loss.
Corey Crawford made 35 saves to pick up the win.
“[Crawford] kept us in the game,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We gave up high-quality stuff and here we are still at 2-1 and finding a way to get back into it in the third.”
Florida dropped to 12-14-5 with the loss.
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Blackhawks highlights]
James Reimer took the loss on 25 saves.
“Those three games are must-win games, so it was nice to play well late and find ways to win games maybe if we don’t play our best hockey, especially in the middle period. I think it gives us confidence that we can find some ways to score late goals, take the lead and come back down a goal late and win in overtime,” Toews said of the win and two points.
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