Hawks Take the Season Series with a Win Against Struggling Flames

photo from dawindycity.com

The Blackhawks rebounded well from Saturday night's loss to the Islanders to retake first place in the Central Division, handing the Flames their fifth straight loss to win the season series 2-1, and take five of a possible six points.


Brandon Saad scored his third game winner of the season, and collected his eighth point in eight games, and along with Jonathan Toews' posting two assists, the top line collected three of the six points given to the Blackhawks scorers last night. Saad has been going from strength to strength, and he's been doing everything but putting the puck in the net, and hopefully this goal is the start of many more, and he can finally start producing the numbers of a top line left wing.

Tim Erixon made his Blackhawks debut last night, and played well, almost ten minutes of ice time. He didn't record a shot on goal, but he jumped up on the play a lot and was noticeable on the ice for many of his shifts. It would be nice to see him play with ex-teammate and friend David Rundblad, who seems to have found himself on the wrong side of Joel Quenneville recently, a healthy scratch for several games in a row.

The penalty kill was three for three last night, much better than the last game against the Flames, where they allowed two power play goals on six attempts. The Flames are the only team in the NHL to score more than one power play goal in a game against the Blackhawks this season, but this time they were held scoreless, increasing their penalty kill to 90.9% on the season. They also scored on the power play, going one for two on the night, and 18th in the league with 17.6%.

For only the second time in seven games since the Corey Crawford injury, the Blackhawks outshot their opponents, but this should be expected, since Calgary is the second worst possession team in the league (only Buffalo is worse). The Blackhawks only managed twenty eight shots on goal, seven less than their average. They need to start getting their shot counts up, otherwise when they face other good possession teams like Tampa Bay, they'll start to suffer for it.

The Versteeg-Richards-Kane line has been slowing down a little bit in recent games, only recording a couple of goals in the last four games, and while other lines are picking up the slack (Saad, Sharp, Toews especially), I'd like to see the offence of this line pick up a little more, especially since Versteeg only seems to be getting better as the season goes on.

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Antti Raanta. Raanta knows he's playing for his job at the minute, as Scott Darling looks likely to take the back up job from him.any day now. He posted a .958% save percentage last night, and improved to .944% on the season, with a GAA of 1.85. There isn't much more he can do to stop himself getting sent to Rockford, he just has to hope that he gets the chance to stay in the NHL.

2. Jonathan Toews. With two assists last night, he moves into sole possession of second place on the Blackhawks for points, with twenty five in thirty one games. His pass to Saad for the game winner was especially good, and it's rare that the Blackhawks have a game where Toews isn't one of the best players on the ice.

1. Brandon Saad. Saad's third game winner of the season was a beauty, bringing him to seven goals on the season. He has four points in his last five games, but this goal was his first since Nashville, where he recorded a goal and an assist. Very worthy of the Blackhawks Championship belt.

Next game: December 16th, vs. Wild