Blackhawks Sweep the Series with a Second Shootout Win Against Pittsburgh

photo from chicitysports.com

For the third time in four games, the Blackhawks have played beyond regulation. In two of those three games, they've gone to a shootout. This is the first time in this homestand that the Blackhawks have won in overtime, sweeping the series against the Penguins with a 2-1 shootout win.


Corey Crawford was excellent. I think he might have been the best player on the ice for much of the game, turning away thirty six of thirty seven shots for a .973 save percentage, including several point blank shots from some of the best shooters in the league. Crawford's been playing extremely well recently, going 4-0-1 in his last five games, and allowing two goals or less in four of the five. Really, the only blip in his play since the Anaheim game at the end of January has been the second period of the Canucks game on Tuesday, where he allowed three goals on sixteen shots. This stretch of games might be the best he's played since the beginning of the season, when he was putting up elite numbers, and while he's dropped off a little since then, he's currently 11th in the league in save percentage, with .922, and 10th in GAA, with 2.26.

The fourth line made an impressive showing, with Ben Smith drawing back into the line up in favour of Daniel Carcillo, and he, along with Marcus Kruger and Patrick Sharp, after a shaky start, had several excellent shifts, including one where they completely embarrassed the Malkin line for the Penguins, keeping them trapped in their own zone for the entire shift, and getting several good scoring chances.

The defence was still shaky, but better. Putting Hjalmarsson and Oduya back together gave them some much needed stability, especially in the case of Oduya, but Keith with Rozsival and Seabrook with Cumiskey was questionable at times. The penalty kill continues to do well, killing all but one of the last fifteen attempts (going two for two today), but the power play continues to struggle, going oh for two, despite the continued shaking up of the power play units.

Overall, it was a better game than we've seen so far during this homestand, and hopefully this means they're only going to keep doing up as they get used to playing at home again (last home game was the first Arizona game, before the All Star Break). So far they've collected six of a possible eight points (going 2-0-2).

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Kris Versteeg. This was the best we've seen from Versteeg since his return from injury against Vancouver. He was strong, fast, and though he was kept off the scoresheet, I thought he played well enough and had several good scoring chances, jumping between the second line or the fourth.

2. Niklas Hjalmarsson. He opened the scoring with only his second goal of the season, and led the Blackhawks with three shots on goal, despite being fourth among Blackhawks defencemen in ice time.

1.Corey Crawford. This was Crawford's strongest game so far in the homestand, against the toughest opponent, and he did excellently, even when his team left him out to dry for most of the first and second periods. If he can keep this up for the rest of the homestand and beyond, the Blackhawks will have nothing to worry about.

Next game: February 18th, vs. Red Wings