Wow.

In a game that many, including CommittedIndians, billed at the Game of the Year, the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks gave the viewing audience every ounce of effort we could have asked for in an incredible game that was really a tale of four period.

In the first, the Hawks came out with a stampede of offense. After failing to register a shot for five minutes, the flood gates opened as Evgeni Nabokov allowed three goals on the first six shots he faced. What made matters worse for San Jose was that the three goals came from three different lines for the Hawks.

Dustin Byfuglien started the part with his 14th of the year at 5:02 into the first. Only 48 seconds later it was Troy Brouwer lighting the lamp for his 16th of the year. Finally, Andrew Ladd poked in a fat rebound at 8:23 for his 10th on the campaign. The Sharks, who had been off for four days before the game and had won their last five coming in were absolutely shell-shocked, and burned their timeout before the game was even half way through the first period. The Hawks were completely dominating the Sharks, controlling the puck on either end and stifling the Sharks first power play in their defensive zone.

But after the timeout, things settled down. Joe Pavelski got behind Duncan Keith and scored on a nice redirect at 11:52 to cut the lead to two, and, more importantly, the momentum of the Blackhawks.

In the second period the Sharks turned the tables on the Blackhawks. In a period that saw the Sharks get 19 shots on Cristobal Huet and some sloppy passing in their defensive zone, the Hawks were fortunate to escape with a 3-2 lead. It was Pavelski, again, scoring for the Sharks, this time at the mid point of a power play to bring some life back into the building and some breath into the Sharks’ offense. When the second period concluded, it was clear that the Sharks were not going to roll over and get blown out like they did in the Hawks first game in California.

Just under five minutes into the third, Manny Malhotra got just enough of a Rob Blake blast to escape Huet and tie the game at three after a bad turnover by Brent Sopel behind the net. The Sharks were taking it to the Hawks, and now had the momentum. But just as San Jose did in the first period, Joel Quenneville used his timeout to perfection and called his exhausted group of road warriors together to re-focus their effort.

Whatever Quenneville said should have been recorded and given to every other coach in Chicago, because it worked.

From that point on, the Blackhawks energy miraculously reappeared and the action became a spirited back-and-forth affair with great defense and skating from both teams worthy of the hype this game had received. Make no mistake, this was a game being played at playoff-level intensity and both teams knew exactly what was on the line.

With around eight minutes left in the game, Keith made maybe the biggest defensive play of the Hawks season to date. His fellow Canadian Olympian Joe Thornton had the puck sprinting up the right board and wound up for a cannon shot on net. Keith laid out and took the full force of the shot around the ankle, blocking the shot and perhaps saving the game. Keith was obviously in pain after the play, but his grimaces and the tie score reminded Hawks fans why the organization just committed 13 years to him.

Thornton was called for a delay of game penalty with 87 seconds remaining in regulation, and the Hawks were able to get one last rush at Nabokov. The San Jose netminder was up to the task, though, and the game was extended to overtime.

After the three periods of regulation, both teams had registered 37 shots. Many of the shots by both teams were in traffic, heavily contested, and the saves by both Nabokov and the much-maligned Huet were exceptional. Indeed, many questions regarding Huet’s ability to play big in a big game were answered on Thursday night. Despite the defense in front of him taking the entire second and most of the third period off, and in the face of a team that has nine players travelling to Vancouver in February as Olympians, Huet was up to the task and played a magnificent game.

In the overtime, after the barrage that both goalies faced, only two shots made their way to the net. Both were from the Blackhawks, and the second was the second goal of the game for Brouwer, his 17th of the game. Niklas Hjalmarsson made an aggressive move to take the puck away high in the Hawks’ defensive zone, and got the outlet to Brouwer on the right boards. Kris Versteeg did a great job of streaking hard to the net and providing just enough of a screen for Brouwer, who’s wrist shot was true to end an exhausting game.

For the night, Brent Seabrook was credited with five blocked shots to lead the team, Brian Campbell led the team with a +3, Ladd led the team with four hits to compliment his first period goal, and Brouwer continued his breakout season with two goals on only three shots and was credited with three hits.

The Blackhawks have now won three of four games against the Sharks, but the irony of this great game going into overtime is that, despite winning the game, the Hawks still trail the Sharks by one point in the Western Conference standings.

In the seventh game of a long road trip that’s included a goalie controversy, blown leads and topless players in a limo in Vancouver, the focus, drive and will to win displayed by the Blackhawks on Thursday night serves notice that they’re absolutely for real, and are a legitimate threat to win it all this year.

It’s late January, and the Blackhawks will play the seventh game of a long road trip in San Jose on Thursday night. Whenever those two scenarios meet, there are usually players missing from the lineup. Throughout this season, we’ve seen Jordan Hendry step in for Brent Sopel, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Cam Barker and even in a forward role at times. There have also been occasions when the Blackhawks have needed the shuttle running a kid back and forth from Rockford to have a full roster.

With the exceptions of Dave Bolland and Adam Burish, both of whom have missed most of the season to date, the Blackhawks will be fully together on the ice for the biggest game on the Western Conference calendar in 2010.

Hjalmarsson didn’t practice on Thursday, but is reportedly good to go for the game. Sopel, who’s been banged up and missed Tuesday night’s game in Edmonton, will also be active for Thursday night’s game.

Cristobal Huet will start in net for Chicago.

The Sharks, on the other hand, will be without Dan Boyle on their blue line this evening.

After ending the 2009 portion of the season with one of the best records in the NHL, the Blackhawks will be tested to begin the new calendar year.

After the Hawks host Columbus they hit the road for two tough weeks. Starting in Columbus to finish a home-and-home series (with an off-day in the middle), the Hawks will then travel to Detroit, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, San Jose and Carolina before the calendar rolls over to February. The Oilers and Hurricanes are struggling right now, but as Detroit could have a few of their injured players back and should be skating hard after being embarrassed on their home ice just before Christmas.

The game in San Jose on Jan. 28 could go a long way in determining home-ice advantage in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks have won two of the three meeting so far this year, including a ridiculous blow out win the last time the two played in northern California. The Sharks came into the United Center and stole a win despite being outplayed for most of the game in December, and will be looking to put together a strong stretch of games before almost half of their roster goes to Vancouver for the Olympics.

The flight from San Jose to Carolina will be a long one, as the Hawks cross the country to finally play a bad Eastern Conference team. The Hurricanes might be the worst team in hockey right now, and might move a veteran or two before that game happens.

Injuries could be something to watch for the Blackhawks this month as well. Niklas Hjalmarsson was hit in the ear on New Year’s Eve and will miss the first game of the near year; with the heightened concern surrounding concussions in the NHL, any injuries involving a player’s head will receive extra precaution. If Hjalmarsson misses extended time, it will be Jordan Hendry that steps into his place. The other injuries to keep an eye on are those of Dave Bolland and Adam Burish. Both hope to be back with the team after the Olympics in March, and Burish has already started skating on his own. If, and when, these two key players come back will only make the Blackhawks stronger down the stretch.

Something else to watch for is potential player movement in January. The rumor mill will certainly be working overtime, as it always does, but the NHL has a blackout on trading during the Olympics. Because the Winter Games end just a few days before the trade deadline, there might be more player movement in January than normal. As long as teams continue to show interest in veteran Blackhawks like Cam Barker, Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp and Brent Sopel, and as long as the reality of the Hawks needing to move salary before next season exists, there will be rumors involving the Blackhawks. If the progress from Burish and Bolland is encouraging, GM Stan Bowman might be able to pursue a deal during the season to open up a spot on the roster for both.

January will be an interesting month.

After having the Blackhawks put a touchdown on them at their building in November, the Sharks were certainly going to be more focused at the United Center on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for the Hawks, the most focused player on the ice was San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

Nabokov had one of his better performances of the season, stopping 45 of 47 shots despite the Blackhawks getting seven power play opportunities as the Sharks stole a 3-2 win in front of another packed house.

The Sharks took an early lead when Dany Heatley put the puck top shelf on Cristobal Huet, who was not his best. From there, the first period was sloppy as the Hawks took two penalties and the Sharks were hit with three. Neither team established much of a flow, but the Hawks defense was at least keeping the Sharks from putting the puck on net; San Jose was only credited with four shots in the first period. Unfortunately, even with a 14-4 shot advantage, the Hawks were losing 1-0.

In the second it was more of the same. Joe Thornton put in a short handed goal just over five minutes into the period to give the Sharks a 2-0 lead, but the Hawks defense continued to keep the Sharks from getting many shots to Huet. After two periods, the Hawks held a 26-7 shot advantage, but were trailing 2-0 on the scoreboard.

Credit the sharpshooting Sharks for taking advantage for making their limited shots count. Depite their strong defensive presence, the Hawks made just enough mental mistakes to give good scorers opportunities and Huet wasn’t up to the challenge after posting consecutive shutouts.

The Hawks did everything they could to get the puck into the net in the third. Coach Joel Quenneville mixed up his lines to spark the offense, again, by switching Marian Hossa up to the line with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Troy Brouwer bumped down to the second line with Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd. The combinations were effective at keeping the puck in San Jose’s zone; the Hawks dominated the puck possession in the period, but weren’t able to get the puck past Nabokov still.

Finally, four minutes into the third period, Kane attacked the net and put his own rebound past Nabokov in traffic to cut the San Jose lead in half. But that was when Huet let the team down.

Only 20 seconds after Kane’s goal brought energy back to the United Center crowd, Jason Demers beat Huet for San Jose’s third goal of the night. It was Demers’ second goal of the year, both coming against the Blackhawks. All of the momentum the Hawks had worked so hard to establish was thrown away in that one brief moment, and the Hawks never recovered.

Marian Hossa added his sixth goal of the season with just under two minutes left in the game, and the Hawks furiously threw the puck at Nabokov over the final two minutes, many of which were quality shots, only to be denied time after time. When the final horn sounded, the Sharks escaped with a victory despite being outshot in the third period 21-7.

The Sharks were effective at taking a lot of cheap shots late in plays and after the whistle, but got away with some of the extracurricular action. Still, the Sharks were hit with 21 penalty minutes in the game to the Hawks 14 in a game that wasn’t very well played in the neutral zone by either team. In a continuing issue of concern, the Hawks power play was ineffective on all seven opportunities on Tuesday night, but even the Sharks’ players were giving all the credit to Nabokov. After the game, San Jose captain Rob Blake told Versus that Nabokov should have been all three stars of the game, and he was probably right. Despite Kane having a goal and an assist, and Thornton scoring short handed, the story of the night was Nabokov.

December begins with the Chicago Blackhawks in first place in the Central Division. Life is good.

After a spectacular November that saw the team handle most, if not all, of the Western Conference powers both at home and on the road, the Hawks come on in December for a month highlighted by games against some of the top talent from the Eastern Conference. Thankfully for the fans, though, most of December is played in Chicago.

The fun begins on December 5, when the Hawks make their lone trip to the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. This game could not only be a showcase of some of the best young players in the NHL, but might be a trendy pick to serve as a 2010 Stanley Cup Finals preview. After the Pittsburgh trip, the Hawks return home for New York Rangers before heading to Buffalo to take on the red-hot Sabres on December 11.

This stretch of three games could serve as a good gauge of how the Blackhawks stack up against the stronger teams in the East. But the schedule doesn’t get easy after just that one week.

After the Sabres game, the Hawks have a five-game homestand during which Original Six foes Boston and Detroit come to the United Center. It will be the only trip for the Bruins to Chicago this year, and the first time the Hawks will face the Red Wings since their third game of the season; that loss also happened to be the Wings home opener and the first game either team had played on American soil this season.

Marian Hossa will play the last two teams with whom he advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh and Detroit. The Red Wings should be getting some of their injured players back during December, but the losses on their roster have kept them from playing consistent hockey this year.

Following the Red Wings could be a dangerous game for the Blackhawks. The final game of the homestand is against the San Jose Sharks… the same Sharks that have lost both games against the Hawks this year and who got their doors blown out in their building during the Circus Trip. If there’s one team on the December schedule that has a score to settle, it’s the Sharks.

The Hawks will leave town for a couple tough games after facing the Sharks, travelling to Detroit and Nashville, before returning home for Nashville again.

The Predators started the season in a funk but have come on strong lately and fall in a couple spots on the December schedule that could present an opportunity for a good team to take advantage of a team playing a lot of games against premier Eastern Conference teams. The back-to-back home and home series on the two days immediately following Christmas could be a great test for both teams.

The final day of 2009 will also present a potential Finals preview when the New Jersey Devils come to Chicago. It will be the first time John Madden faces his former team, and will absolutely serve as a test of the potent Hawks offense against Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. Both teams are elite defensively, so that could be a bell ringer to end a special calendar year in the history of the Blackhawks.

San Jose's Joe Thornton accepts defeat as Brent Seabrook celebrates his game-winner.

It took some catching up on Sunday night, but the Blackhawks scored a big victory both in the standing and their confidence against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.

The game was filled with ironies, the biggest of which was the scoring column. On Sunday night, the Blackhawks celebrated the career of Jeremy Roenick, one of the greatest goal scoring forwards in team history. And yet it was Brent Sopel who opened the scoring.

Brent Sopel? Really?

Yeah, that’s right, Sopel scored the first goal of the game for Chicago, his first goal since Halloween 1998. Sopel goal came early in a first period that saw a lot of back and forth action, good skating from both sides, a lot of physical play in the corners. and mediocre passing that led to a lot of turnovers in neutral ice.

Dany Heatley tied the game after a turnover deep in the Hawks’ zone, and the first period ended with a 1-1 score. The Hawks outshot San Jose 9-7 in the first period, numbers that are low for both teams. Evgeni Nabokov and Cristobal Huet both made a handful of nice saves in traffic early on, but the sloppy passing from both teams kept either team from having extended rushes at the net.

Just as the second period was beginning, Ben Eager decided to drop the gloves with Doug Murray. Murray didn’t look like he wanted to dance, but Eager put the music on and started swinging, so he obliged Eager with a decent round. Murray landed a couple blows before Eager ended the fight with a solid right hook. Both earned a five minute break for fighting, and the refs assessed Eager with a two minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct as well.

Less than 35 seconds into Jordan Hendry serving Eager’s two minutes, Jason Demers scored his first career NHL goal. Hendry left the box on one of the rare occasions the Hawks stellar power play defense allowed a goal this year, only to watch Patrick Marleau his 12th goal of the season only 45 second later.

Unlike many instances in the past when the Hawks have given up multiple goals in a short period of time, coach Joel Quenneville opted to let the team skate through the down swing in momentum rather than use his timeout.

On a night when the Hawks would celebrate scoring, they would now need to come up with some of their own, as the Sharks were up 3-1 less than two minutes into the second period.

That scoring would start almost six minutes after Marleau’s goal, as Jonathan Toews fought a puck out from behind the net and found Patrick Kane streaking for the net for a goal to stop the bleeding. From this point forward, the Hawks appeared to take a shooting approach the rest of the period. The approach paid off as John Madden followed a couple hard Andrew Ladd shots with a rebound putback to tie the game at three heading to the third period.

The Hawks outshot the Sharks 13-8 in the second period, and both teams took a few penalties in a period that saw significantly better passing than previously. The goal was Madden’s third already this year in what was by far his best game as a member of the Blackhawks; he won all nine of his faceoffsand was credited with a blocked shot and a hit as well.

The third period was more physical and tentative from both teams, as both goalies made good stops in traffic and the teams skated through a fairly uneventful 20 minutes to earn a point each in the standings.

As overtime began, the Hawks made a strong push at Nabokov. they were credited, officially, with only two shots but it seemed like there were at least four, the last of which found the back of the net off Brent Seabrook’s stick. It was Seabrook’s second goal of the season, and both have been clutch.

Seabrook’s first goal was the overtime game-winning shot that capped the incredible Hawks’ comeback win against Calgary early in October, when they trailed 5-0 in the first period. Sunday night was also an overtime game-winner, also capping a comeback against a good team.

For his efforts, which included two blocked shots, one hit and a plus-two rating, Seabrook was the Number One Star of the game. Niklas Hjalmarsson was the second star of the game, playing nearly 20 solid minutes on the blue line.

The ironies that the Hawks got three of their four goals, including the game-winner, came from players that rarely score on Jeremy Roenick Heritage Night seemed fitting on a team as deep as these Hawks are on a night that celebrated one of the great offensive players in the team’s history.

It was also perfectly fitting that it was Seabrook, wearing Number Seven on his jersey, that would score the game-winner. In the middle of the third period, the jumbo screen in the United Center showed the alumni box where Roenick was seated. Next to Roenick, leaning out of the picture until JR pulled him in and the camera panned out to include him, was Chris Chelios. Chelios was the captain on many of the great teams Roenick led in scoring in the early 1990s, and also famously wore Number Seven for the Blackhawks.

The shot of Roenick and Chelios brought the crowd to its feet for an ovation worthy of a game-winning goal, as the hard work and quality play both of those great icons of the franchise put forth in the 1990s was finally appreciated in one moment. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person in the United Center crowd that had goosebumps during that ovation.

Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ebbett were both scratched from the game, and the Hawks recalled Brian Bickell late Sunday afternoon to play in Versteeg’s place. Quenneville mentioned that Versteegwas dealing with an “upper body injury” after Friday night’s game against Toronto, in which he took a couple hard hits from behind late.

The Hawks won’t play at the United Center again until December 1st, as the circus will take over the United Center for the next two weeks.

Jeremy Roenick drops the puck Sunday night.