Donato’s goal came after Mason McTavish tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal with 36 seconds remaining in the third period.
“I thought we went out to win the game,” Chicago coach Jeff Blashill said. “Overtimes are overtimes. They had some 2-on-1s. If they execute, then they score. But I thought we did some things we had talked about actually this morning. We met on 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 ironically enough, and I thought we did some smart things, a couple smart changes, stuff like that.”
Frank Nazar scored, and Spencer Knight made 38 saves for the Blackhawks (3-2-2), who are 3-0-1 in their past four games.
Dostal made 28 saves for the Ducks (2-2-1), who were beginning a five-game road trip.
“Our pace was great,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “Both teams had a lot of speed, a lot of rush opportunities. Goaltending was outstanding at both ends. We scored a huge goal there, so it was a good point to get, but at the same time, the lead in a game has been evasive for us. … We’ll take the point.”
Nazar gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 9:43 of the third period. Wyatt Kaiser‘s one-timer off a pass from Nazar hit the crossbar, but Nazar was able to tap the rebound in at the left post.
“I don’t really remember the full play right now,” Nazar said. “I got to relax a little bit. [Donato] made a great play getting it at the blue line, taking a hit to make a play. Kaiser joined up on the rush, had a good shot. Really just stopping at the net for those greasy goals. We knew it was going to be a hard one to get and something that was going to be greasy right there. Just how it went.”
McTavish tied it 1-1 after Kaiser was assessed a delay of game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass at 18:13. The Ducks then pulled Dostal during the power play for a 6-on-4 advantage, and McTavish scored at 19:24 by roofing a shot short side from the bottom of the right circle.
“It was late in the game, we had to score to tie it up,” said defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who had the secondary assist on the goal. “I thought everyone did a great job. We were kind of composed there and we didn’t give up and got one at the end, so that was good.
“It’s tough. Obviously, Dostal played great for us the whole night. We had a lot of chances and their goalie played well. We just couldn’t find the back of the net, couldn’t come up with the extra point.”