The Chicago Blackhawks won their fourth straight game as they took down the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night at the United Center, but the win has a much deeper meaning than the two points the Hawks got in the standings.
That’s because the Blackhawks set a new NHL record on Monday, becoming the first team to ever rack up two straight 1-0 overtime victories since the league reinstituted overtime for the 1982-83 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Blackhawks, who had beaten the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0 on Saturday night on a Jonathan Toews goal, did the exact same thing on Monday, playing to a scoreless draw during regulation and getting an overtime goal from Toews to end the game.
The Blackhawks also became just the third team in history to win back-to-back 1-0 decisions with the same goaltender getting the win in both games and the same player scoring the game-winning goal in both contests. The feat was also accomplished last season by the Montreal Canadiens, who saw Carey Price rack up consecutive shutouts and Max Pacioretty score the lone goal in the two victories.
Toews also became the first Blackhawks player to score an overtime goal in consecutive regular season games since Patrick Sharp achieved that mark in back-to-back games during the 2011-12 season.
The loss was also significant for the Ducks, as it represented their fifth shutout defeat of the season in just their eighth game played. The Ducks were only shutout four times last season, but more notably, they became the first team since the 1930 New York Americans to be held without a goal in five of their first eight games of the season.
The Ducks have only scored six goals this season, which is the second-lowest total through eight games in NHL history.
