Hossa rings up goal No. 400 in Hawks victory

There are a number of words one could use to describe Marian Hossa as a hockey player.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville picked a pretty good one Thursday night after Hossa scored his 400th career goal and set up Patrick Sharp's game-winner in overtime in a 3-2 victory over the Islanders.

“Hoss is a pretty amazing player,” Quenneville told reporters.

Here's how good Hossa is:

“When you talk about him, I don't think of offense,” Quenneville said.

That's a big statement considering Hossa has 400 goals and more than 450 assists, but Quenneville sees in Hossa what the rest of us do: a complete player who not only can score, but controls games with his puck possession, back checks like few other forwards in the NHL and thinks the game on a whole other level.

Hossa got his milestone goal at 11:42 of the first period to open the scoring. It wasn't pretty or the way Hossa envisioned how his 400th would look like — a shot from behind the net that went in off Islanders goalie Al Montoya.

“I was hoping 400 would look better, but I'll remember it,” said Hossa, who claimed he was trying to feed Jonathan Toews in front.

Hossa set up both goals Sharp scored. He led a 2-on-1 in overtime, putting a shot on Montoya that turned into Sharp's winner on a rebound.

With Ray Emery playing another strong game in goal, the Hawks had a 2-0 lead late in the second period when Travis Hamonic scored with 1:39 left before intermission.

Moments later the Hawks went down two men after penalties to Patrick Kane and Dave Bolland, but they killed 1:56 of a 5-on-3 that extended into the third period.

The Hawks didn't allow the Islanders a shot during the 51 seconds the 5-on-3 that extended into the third period.

“That was a big kill,” Quenneville said. “There was a big emphasis that if we got through that we'd be in good shape.”

“The 5-on-3 kind of hurt us a bit,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “They did a good job getting in lanes, I give them credit.”

The Islanders tied it on Steve Staios' shot through a screen with 8:08 to play.

The Hawks' penalty killers later came up big again after Daniel Carcillo took a roughing penalty with 3:34 to play.

“All game long our penalty killers gave us a big boost,” Sharp said.

Emery improved his record to 5-1-2 and likely earned himself another start on Sunday against San Jose at the United Center.

“I thought Ray was real good,” Quenneville said. “He looked big and challenged well and continues to get points for us. He earned an opportunity to be back in net (Sunday) and we'll look at it.”