Petersen gets first NHL victory for Kings against Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Calvin Petersen made 34 saves for the Los Angeles Kings for his first NHL win, 2-1 in the shootout against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Friday.

"It was a moment that I've thought about in my head for a really long time," said Petersen, who made his first NHL start after Peter Budaj missed the morning skate because he was ill. "I'm just really glad and honored it came while I was wearing a Kings uniform. The guys battled incredibly hard in front of me, so I was just a recipient of a lot of very good plays. Big team win, but it was obviously fun to get the first one."
The 24-year-old made the save against Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in the shootout. Ilya Kovalchuk and Anze Kopitar scored in the tiebreaker for the Kings, (6-11-1), who won for the first time in four games.
WATCH: [All Kings vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Tyler Toffoli scored unassisted at 10:29 of the second period to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead. His shot went in off defenseman Duncan Keith's right leg.
"I think somebody fell and the puck kind of came to me in the neutral zone, and I made a move at the blue line and [Kovalchuk] went through, and I think it hit somebody and went in," Toffoli said.

Brandon Saad tied it 1-1 at 2:39 of the third. He crashed the net and scored off a pass from Toews from below the goal line to the top of the crease.
"Whether it's getting to the net and getting a great pass like I did, or getting it low to high and just getting there for the action, when our D get it through, we create chances and rebounds and we can battle back to regain some life and keep more puck possession," Saad said. "When we don't get shots through, we're just getting stuck on the backcheck and it's killing our offense."

Corey Crawford made 31 saves for Chicago (7-8-5), which was 0-for-3 on the power play and has lost nine of its past 10 games (1-6-3).
"We could've won it," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "It's still only one point out of two, which is disappointing at home. But we still have some things to clean up, for sure. I liked that we showed character to come back. I thought the overtime was fairly well played too. We kept the puck for a lot of it, generated a couple of things. Obviously would've loved to get the extra one, but a little mixed tonight."
Forward Carl Hagelin made his Kings debut after being acquired Wednesday in a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Tanner Pearson. He had three shots on goal in 15:47.

They said it

"What a place to do it, in kind of his hometown, to go against Toews and Kane, like two of his idols probably coming through, two great guys. For him, it was a great night. You couldn't really write it better for him to finish like that. So it was great for him." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins on the first NHL win for goalie Cal Petersen, who played at Notre Dame and is from Waterloo, Iowa, about 265 miles west of Chicago
"You get three (power plays) in the second, it would be nice to get one (goal). Even if you're not getting anything on it, it's nice to get momentum off of it. I thought we did a decent job of getting momentum, getting some chances and some looks. Sometimes you've just got to converge on the net and hopefully get those rebounds and try to find a way to get one a little bit dirtier sometimes." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane

Need to know

Petersen played the final game of his collegiate career with Notre Dame at United Center, a 6-1 loss to Denver in the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey semifinals April 6, 2017. … Los Angeles forward Trevor Lewis is week to week with a fractured foot, the Kings said before the game. … Crawford has made at least 30 saves in five of 11 starts this season. … Forward Andreas Martinsen had six hits to become the first Blackhawks player with at least five hits in three straight games since Bryan Bickell from Jan. 9-16, 2015.

What's next

Kings:At Nashville Predators on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-TN, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: Host the Minnesota Wild on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; NHLN, WGN, FS-WI, FS-N+, NHL.TV)