Blackhawks hand Isles their 3rd straight loss

[December 16, 2016]  NEW YORK -- Richard Panik scored with 6:13 remaining in the third period Thursday night to cap a wild back-and-forth game and lift the Chicago Blackhawks to a 5-4 comeback win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.

Panik scored after center Dennis Rasmussen poked the puck free from Islanders defenseman Dennis Seidenberg behind the New York net. The puck skidded to center Marcus Kruger, who passed to Panik in front of the net.

Artemi Panarin scored twice for the Blackhawks (20-8-4), who trailed 2-0 less than four minutes into the first period but tied the game 3-3 by the end of the first 20 minutes.

Artem Anisimov and Marian Hossa also scored for Chicago, which has won three of four (3-0-1) and six of nine (6-2-1). Goalie Scott Darling recorded 28 saves.

Andrew Ladd, Casey Cizikas, Ryan Strome and Anders Lee scored for the Islanders (11-13-5), who have lost three straight (0-3-0). Goalie Thomas Greiss made 27 saves.

Ladd, who was a member of the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup-winning team in 2010, opened the scoring in a wild first period by taking a pass from Alan Quine, who had weaved between Chicago defensemen Michal Kempny and Brent Seabrook, and firing a shot over Darling's glove at 2:14.

Cizikas doubled the Islanders' lead just 1:44 later on a goal set up by Nikolay Kulemin, who stole the puck from Seabrook in the Blackhawks zone. Kulemin raced down the ice and fired a shot that bounced off Darling, but Cizikas backhanded home the rebound.

The Islanders actually scored a third goal minutes later, but Travis Hamonic's score was disallowed due to Ladd being offside.

The Blackhawks then roared back, with three goals in fewer than five minutes. Panarin corralled a faceoff deep in the Islanders zone and remained to the right of the net, where he took a cross-ice pass from Seabrook and sent a shot over Greiss' right shoulder for a power-play goal.

The Blackhawks scored another power-play goal with 7:57 remaining, when Anisimov, stationed to the right of Greiss, took a pass from Patrick Kane and tucked the puck into the corner of the net with Greiss leaning to the left.

Chicago took the lead off another faceoff win a mere 65 seconds later, when Ryan Hartman swooped in from the left of Greiss and backhanded the puck to Hossa, whose shot sailed past a lunging Greiss.

The Islanders tied the game 1:12 later, when Strome's shot from just in front of the blue line skipped along the ice, through a gaggle of players in front of Darling and into the net.

Lee put the Islanders ahead again 22 seconds into the second period, when Lee outreached Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson and got his stick on a shot by Hamonic.

Panarin's second goal, another power-play tally, tied the game with 18.7 seconds remaining in the period, when he fired a shot from the left faceoff circle past Greiss.

NOTES: The Islanders scratched LW Anthony Beauvillier and G Jean-Francois Berube. G Jaroslav Halak was active as the backup to Thomas Greiss and will likely start the second game of a back-to-back set Friday night against the Buffalo Sabres. ... Islanders RW Cal Clutterbuck played in his 600th career game. ... The Blackhawks scratched D Gustav Forsling, C Tyler Motte and D Michal Rozsival. ... Blackhawks G Scott Darling made his seventh straight start in place of Corey Crawford, who underwent an appendectomy on Dec. 3. Crawford skated in Chicago on Wednesday but has yet to face pucks in the net.

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