SUNRISE, Fla. _ Even though the Blackhawks have made a habit recently of putting together lousy first periods, it was still a shock to see the latest one when it arrived.
This wasn't the Stanley Cup champion Capitals or powerful Lightning that outshot, outhustled and outscored them. This was the woeful Panthers, one of four teams with fewer points entering the game than the slightly less woeful Hawks.
This was a Panthers team playing its fourth game in six days, second in two nights and without their recently injured 31-goal scorer Vincent Trocheck.
You know what kind of Panthers team this was? The kind that can let Alex DeBrincat tie the game with 1.8 seconds left to send it to overtime and Erik Gustafsson score the game winner midway through the extra session to give the Hawks a thrilling and much-needed 5-4 victory Saturday night at the BB&T Center.
The Hawks finished their East Coast swing 1-2 and snapped their road losing streak at eight.
The Panthers had the game's first power play a little more than four minutes in after a Brandon Manning holding call and converted on Mike Hoffman's slap shot to go up 1-0.
Seventy seconds after the goal, Manning and former Hawk Troy Brouwer got into a fight that didn't turn out well for Manning. Brouwer flattened him with his final few punches before they both went off with fighting majors.
It became 2-0 when Colton Sceviour carried the puck into the Hawks' zone on the left side and Henri Jokiharju, Gustav Forsling and John Hayden all moved in on him. That left Jared McCann wide open in the middle of the slot to take a pass and have plenty of time to deke goalie Cam Ward for his third goal of the season.
It took the Hawks less than six minutes to tie it up in the second period. David Kampf cut the lead in half 49 seconds in on a beautiful drive to the net. He flew past Aaron Ekblad, used his body to protect the puck and then stuffed it around Panthers goalie James Reimer.
A few minutes later Brandon Saad fed a pass in front of the net to Patrick Kane, who deflected it into the top of the net and the game was tied. It would stay that way for less than three minutes.
Ekblad's blast from left faceoff circle made it 3-2 but the Hawks were immediately in a position to tie it with their first power play of the game. This turned out to be a pivotal moment.
A Panthers player lost his stick early on and it was effectively a 5-on-3 throughout. The Hawks kept the puck in the Panthers' zone the duration of the power play but only got off one shot and failed to score.
On the Panthers' first rush after the penalty was over, Frank Vatrano batted a pass out of midair and past Ward to restore their two-goal lead.
Alexandre Fortin's short-handed goal with 10:08 left _ the Hawks' second of the season _ made it 4-3. Saad was certain he had the equalizer with 5:43 remaining and raised his arms in celebration but the puck had hit off the crossbar.
