Hawks’ 3 goals in 34 seconds a ‘deafening’ moment at United Center originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
It's been a while since the United Center got loud for a regular-season game. Like, the kind of loud where the roof feels like it's going to blow off the building.
The Blackhawks gave their fans something to cheer about after beating the Washington Capitals 5-4 in overtime on Wednesday, but there was a stretch in the second period where they scored three goals in 34 seconds and the energy that followed was incredible. For a brief moment, it felt like a playoff-type atmosphere.
"It was crazy," said Caleb Jones, who scored the overtime winner for his first goal in a Chicago sweater. "This was my second home game here, but that was a really loud building and we were just kind of feeding off the momentum. It was deafening in there. It was really cool to see and our whole team was buzzing on the bench. It was really fun."
It got loud when Alex DeBrincat scored on a 5-on-3 power play to even the score up at 1-1. The decibel levels increased even more when Philipp Kurashev scored his first goal of the season just 18 seconds later.
But when MacKenzie Entwistle scored the third one 16 seconds later, it got to a point where it was hard to hear my own thoughts. Poor Gena Honda, the Blackhawks' PA announcer, was interrupted twice when announcing the goals.
"It was nice to hear the building that loud," DeBrincat said. "It was awesome. That helps a lot when you can get that momentum and keep going like that."
Seconds after the third goal was scored, a puck sprung loose in the neutral zone and a foot race began to ensue between Patrick Kane and a Capitals defenseman, who had the upper hand. But judging by the crowd's energy, you would've thought Kane had a breakaway from center ice.
"That was awesome," said Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 42 shots on a night he was honored for his 500th career NHL win. "The crowd got going, right? It was loud. The boys were loud on the bench. It was nice."
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It was the fourth time in franchise history the Blackhawks scored three goals in 34 seconds or less. The franchise record that will likely never be topped came on March 23, 1952 when Bill Mosienko scored a natural hat trick by himself in 21 seconds.
Most importantly, the Blackhawks picked up two points after feeling like they deserved better in Toronto on Saturday (and they did). They improved to 6-0 in overtime/shootouts under interim head coach Derek King and are hoping to string together some consecutive wins, which they haven't done in nearly a month.
"We won a few at the start and right now we're win one, lose one, win one," King said. "I'd like to get a little three or four-game winning streak going. It's a good start winning the first one. We'll see, hopefully we can get a little streak here and keep climbing up the ladder here."