OT Winner From Sharp Steals Two Points for Blackhawks

photo from nhl.com

For the second time this season, the Blackhawks have taken a win out from under the noses of the Dallas Stars, overcoming 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits to force overtime, before Patrick Sharp buried the game winner.


Corey Crawford's save percentage since returning from his ankle injury is .891%. He didn't look too sharp tonight, letting in four goals on thirty four shots, and there was a particularly scary moment in OT where he almost gave the Stars an empty net to shoot on when he passed the puck from behind the goal straight to a Star. This is a far cry from the last Stars game, where he allowed two goals in the second period and then gave them nothing for the rest of the game. In the six games he's played since his return from injury, Crawford has allowed three or more goals four times. In the eighteen games before his injury, he did so five times. I don't know if it's because he can't get back into the rhythm of the game, or because he's not 100% from his injury yet, but something's up with Crawford, and he needs to start getting his numbers back up to where they were in November.

Defence was playing similarly poorly. They kept jumping up on the rush and being caught in odd man situations, most notably on the 2-1 and 3-2 goals, where Dallas pretty much had three on one and four on two rushes. Niklas Hjalmarsson had an excellent game though, getting an assist on Patrick Kane's goal and leading the team in ice time. He had a couple of odd man rushes that he dealt with excellently.

Chicago managed to stay out of the box for the whole game for the first time this season. There were no penalties taken by the Blackhawks, but there were three taken by Dallas, and Chicago managed to score on one of them, bringing the power play percentage up to just under 19%, good for fifteenth in the league.

For the first time in a while, every forward on the Blackhawks got at least ten minutes of ice time. This allowed Quenneville to both roll four lines and jumble them up a little bit, giving rookie Teuvo Teravainen a chance to play on three different lines at points in the game, and eventually, three of the four lines scored, plus the second power play unit. Patrick Kane's goal gives him nineteen on the season and puts him back at 8th in the league for points with forty two in thirty nine games. Brandon Saad scored for the third time in his last four games. He has ninety nine career points in a hundred and sixty five games. Brad Richards scored the 4-4 goal from an impossible angle. When the Blackhawks need to get it done, generally speaking, they get it done, and it doesn't matter who's putting the puck in the net.

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Duncan Keith. He had a decent game, redeeming himself from the Winter Classic. His two assists put him fifth on the Blackhawks in points with twenty six, and he's ninth among defencemen. It's not Norris worthy numbers as of yet, but he has seven points in the last four games, and he's on pace for fifty four overall.

2. Patrick Sharp. His goal and assist put him back in the top ten on the Blackhawks, which is impressive, considering he's missed fourteen games already this season. He's currently on a four game point streak with three goals and two assists in those games.

1. Brad Richards. Richards has been struggling for goals as of late, but this one was highlight reel worthy, and sent the Blackhawks to OT (where Patrick Sharp eventually scores the winner). He essentially scored two goals last night, getting an assist off a Bickell deflection that was probably going in anyway on the power play.

Next game, January 6th vs. Avalanche