Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had a simple explanation for the Blackhawks' early success this season.

“Big dogs bite,” Hitchcock said.

By that, he meant that in almost every game this season, the Hawks got timely plays from one of their highly-skilled veterans. One night it might be Patrick Kane, another Marian Hossa or another Corey Crawford shutting down an opponent.

In that way, the older players were buying time for the several young players on the Hawks to develop.

“Their sense of timing goes with winning, goes with character, goes with competitive level. They know the timing of the game …” Hitchcock said. “I think what it does quite frankly is it buys time for the young guys to grow. That's all your looking for.”

The Hawks had done that in winning six straight games entering Wednesday night and they continued rolling with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Blues for their seventh in a row.

After Alex Pietrangelo tied the game 17 minutes, 49 seconds into the third period, Artemi Panarin won the game with a wrist shot 25 seconds into overtime.

But of concern for the Hawks was the potential loss of one of their “big dogs,” center Artem Anisimov, who left the game in the second period. Anisimov did not return.

Coach Joel Quenneville said after the game that Anisimov is considered “day to day” because of an upper-body injury.

The loss of Anisimov for any time would be a big blow to the Hawks considering Anisimov was off to the best start of his career. He had scored a point in 11 consecutive games and was second in the league in points with 18 entering Wednesday.

The Hawks had just enough firepower to overcome Anisimov's injury. It was the big dogs that got the Hawks a lead headed into the third period.

Hossa cashed in on a prime opportunity in the second. Defenseman Gustav Forsling blasted a shot from the left point that Blues goaltender Jake Allen could not control.

The rebound went right to Hossa, who was crashing the net from the left circle. He put the puck into the open net at the 1:22 mark.

This came after a lackluster first period for both team that featured sloppy puck handling. The Hawks did have an opportunity to score on a 5-on-3 power play after penalties on Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo. The Hawks had two shots during that power play and came up empty.

Before Anisimov's injury, Quenneville had made a change to his top line, removing Nick Schmaltz from the left wing and placing Richard Panik there alongside Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Then after Anisimov exited, Schmaltz was centering the second line between Panarin and Hossa.

The Hawks were scrambled without Anisimov in the third period, but as he has multiple times this season already, Crawford kept them in it. With the Hawks on the penalty kill, Crawford made a skate save when Vladimir Tarasenko had an apparent easy goal.

It was similar to one Scott Darling made against the Stars on Sunday in overtime on Patrick Eaves. And the Hawks were eventually able to overcome Pietrangelo's goal.

Big dogs coming up big.

chine@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ChristopherHine