Toews completes hat trick in Blackhawks' OT win against Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Jonathan Toews completed a hat trick 2:20 into overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 5-4 win against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Saturday.

Toews scored on a breakaway after a busted play in the Chicago zone sprung him loose, and he beat Blues goalie Jake Allen with a wrist shot.
It was the fifth regular-season NHL hat trick for Toews and the first time he's scored in consecutive NHL games to start a season. Toews became the fifth player in Blackhawks history to score three goals in a game that included an overtime winner.
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Blues highlights]
"It's nice to get a chance there and overtime is always that style where you give up one, you're going to get one right back," Toews said. "I had a chance to walk in and nice to see it go in.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game in this building tonight and all of the guys really bought into the rivalry we have with this team and everyone showed up and wanted to win tonight. It's fun to win on the road here."
Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist; Marcus Kruger scored; Alex DeBrincat, Nick Schmaltz and Henri Jokiharju each had two assists, and Cam Ward made 26 saves for Chicago.
"You think about the score, [Toews] scored a huge goal at the end of the first period [which] all of a sudden got us back in the game," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "He scored a huge goal to tie the game and then the winner, a bigger one. You look at all three and the importance of them and what he did on each play was a lot of work throughout the shift, but ended it being around the net, and obviously it was a great finish on the breakaway."

Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals, Colton Parayko and Chris Butler scored, Ryan O'Reilly had three assists, Pat Maroon had two assists, and Allen made 25 saves for St. Louis.
It's the first time the Blues started a season with consecutive losses since 2006-07, when they also were 0-1-1, and they have allowed 10 goals in the first two games.
"We start playing. That's it, right now," Blues coach Mike Yeo said on how to correct things. "Let's quit playing shinny hockey and let's start playing real hockey. It's correctable. It's just a matter of us figuring out how long we want it to take before we decide if we want to be a good team or be a team that plays the game without purpose and as far as doing the little things and things it takes to win hockey games."

The Blues trailed 3-2 entering the third period before getting goals from Tarasenko at 3:58 on the power play, and Butler at 4:20 for a 4-3 lead.
Butler's last NHL goal was on March 7, 2015, at the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toews scored his second at 6:59 on a rebound to tie it 4-4.
Kane tied the game 2-2 1:33 into the second period, and Kruger gave the Blackhawks their first lead at 3-2 at 10:25.
Parayko made it 1-0 on a power-play goal from the high slot at 14:42 of the first period, and Tarasenko made it 2-0 at 17:22 before Toews cut the lead to 2-1 at 18:30.

They said it

"It's just something we can build off of. You probably want the wins a little bit easier, but as far as excitement and being happy about these two wins, you probably couldn't get any better, especially for the response in the locker room." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane
"We got caught watching and got away from our game plan a bit. With the start we had, we were being heavy and creating. In the second period, give them credit, they made a push, but still, we could have made better plays and got back and played a little smarter and got away from it, and it came back to hurt us." -- Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly

Need to know

Kane moved into fifth place in Blackhawks history with his 518th assist. ... It's the third time in Blackhawks history they started a season with two OT games (1929-30 and 1936-37) and they became the third team in NHL history to win their first two games in OT (Toronto Maple Leafs in 1984-85 and Montreal Canadiens in 2009-10). … The Blackhawks have won 44 straight regular-season games when Toews and Kane score in the same game. ... Jokiharju's two assists were his first NHL points. ... Tarasenko has 16 goals against the Blackhawks since the start of the 2012-13 season, more than any player in the NHL. ... Steen played in his 900th NHL game. His father Thomas played 950. They became the third father-son combination to each play 900 games, behind Bobby Hull (1,063) and Brett Hull (1,269) and Gordie Howe (1,767) and Mark Howe (929).

What's next

Blackhawks: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, SN360, TVAS, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)
Blues: Host the Calgary Flames on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, SNF, NHL.TV)