Desjardins, Blackhawks Hang On In Arizona
After struggling to score in their first game after the All-Star Break, the Blackhawks faced an All-Star goaltender for the second time in as many games.
So of course this visit to the desert would turn into a track meet.
Aided by two power plays, the Blackhawks out-shot the Coyotes 14-6 in the first period. With Alex Goligoski in the box, Patrick Kane got the party started.
Kane’s 16th of the year came 15 seconds into the Goligoski penalty with assists going to Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith.
Ryan Hartman doubled the lead 72 seconds later.
The significant news on Hartman’s 11th goal of the season wasn’t that Keith picked up his second assist of the night, or that Hartman made a terrific play.
Andrew Desjardins was credited with an assist on the play, giving him a point… this season.
Chicago got a second power play in the first period when Michael Stone went to the box, and this time it was Marian Hossa’s turn to do damage.
Desjardins celebrated his first point of the season by fighting Luke Schenn later in the period, a fight that saw Schenn pick up the extra 10 minutes of penalty time. When the first period ended, the Blackhawks held a 3-0 lead and had played one of their better 20 minute stretches of the 2016-17 season.
But nothing can ever be easy, and the second period provided some drama for the Hawks.
Arizona flipped the script on the Hawks in the second, out-shooting Chicago by the same 14-6 tally the Hawks enjoyed in the first period.
Toews and Artem Anisimov went to the penalty box 10 and 19 seconds into the second period, respectively, and the Coyotes made the Hawks pay. Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored on the two-man advantage to cut the lead to 3-1 only 96 seconds into the middle frame.
Artemi Panarin scored his 18th of the season at 5:24 to push the lead back to three.
After the Panarin goal, it was all Arizona. Christian Dvorak scored at 14:24 and Brendan Perlini beat Corey Crawford 87 seconds later and suddenly a blowout had turned into a one-goal contest.
Through the first 40 minutes, Crawford had stopped 17 of 20. Mike Smith saved 16 of 20. So much for the match-up of All-Star netminders.
Seven minutes into the third, with Desjardins in the box (again), Toews had the best early scoring chance of the period while short-handed.
Arizona put a good push on the Hawks in the middle stages of the third but the defense in front of Crawford did a good job of deflecting and clearing pucks.
The Hawks maintained a 4-3 lead in the final minutes and Smith went to the bench for the extra attacker with 84 seconds left in regulation. Arizona wasn’t able to generate a good scoring chance with Smith on the bench and the Blackhawks held on to win.
Keith had two assists in 29:28 on the ice to lead Chicago. Kane and Panarin had one goal and one assist each, and Kane was credited with a team-leading five shots on net. Hartman put four shots on net in only 6:51.
Hossa was credited with the only takeaway for Chicago on Thursday night, while Niklas Hjalmarsson blocked a team-high five shots. Crawford stopped all seven shots he faced in the third period to finish the win with an .889 save percentage (24 of 27 saved).
Very good first period (when AZ didn’t do much forechecking).
Not so good second period (when AZ switched to 2-man forecheck)
Better third period, especially in the last 10 minutes.
… and they hung on and got 2 points.
Next …
CC gave up 3 but none of the 3 were bad goals. The first was on a cross crease pass on a 5 on 3. The second was a deflection on a shot from the blue line. And the third was a deflection off Seabrook. CC played pretty well.
When we play good in the 1st, its the long change in the 2nd. When were at that time of the season we play a full 60. Still have work to do and the things/reasons why we didn’t get a win in last 4 loses are our doing and bad bounces/luck. Same thing happened again in the 3rd, refs left them get away with interference on 14, then they happen to trip a guy a few sec later, they were offsides on a play by a lot no whistle, holding on 11 looked not right, then 19 doesnt get SH goal (and that would be a real Sh goal not some cheap weak 2on1 SH goal) on that move and 16 doesn’t get rebound, Kaner has open net goal and pass bounces almost into bench area and missed another open net. This other team get bounces and breaks will eventually stop and then its our turn to get our fair share of bounces and breaks because most of the last so many games since we won 4 in a row after rough patch the other teams have everything going for them and were playing against the wind.
Its part of the game and every game is different, but WTF. Theres been plenty enough of games where everything (not just more) has gone for the other team. It comes in waves, in the 82 games, and were primed for a good one.
Bread Man had just enough of a drought in last 10 games for the good of the team/not being in top 10 in goals or pts for player bonuses. Now he can play free. That 1.75m is the difference in keeping the entire core and resign/sign a guy as well, no trade like people want to make believe has to happen in summer. We donot have to, can if we want.
Hawks are tough to beat when they play focused and give a full effort. Too many times this season they let off the gas and let team’s back in the game. They escaped with this win against a lesser team…
Good to see the pp and kane and pinarin get something going hopefully that continues. Those 2 quick goals and as pointed out getting burnt on bounces in them both made game alot closer than it shoulda been but goaltending was solid, keep that going and come playoffs a hot goalie and good pp and our chances of hockey in june are ptetty good.
Desjardins is ready to make his run to get into Art Ross Trophy consideration. The big possum always comes late. Great headline Tab.
Speaking of Desjardins, he is playing better lately. I will reiterate that there isn’t much difference at the end of the day b/w him & Kruger as far as their skillset and lack of production and offensive prowess. When entrusted w/ the responsibility to do so, Desjardins can kill penalties and take faceoffs on par w/ Kruger. I would trade Kruger at the deadline, get rid of that salary/cap hit. You have a comparable player that can serve the same purpose for $2.3M less cap hit, and he won’t be on the team next year regardless. Bowman is a smart guy, this thought has to at least crossed his mind.
Notice that when the hawks win the clowns disappear under their rocks!
I didn’t think we responded very well as the game got more physical in the 2nd and 3rd periods. Also, scary amount of over-passing looking for a perfect shot while passing up good chances. Forsling looked more confident, hopefully his stint in Rockford did him good, like it did for Schmalz. Tazer played a very strong game – let’s hope he is rounding back into form.
Desjardins had the penalty, true. But I still like the energy his line has. Extended hard working shifts that have ended up with some points and chances.
I am going to watch that again on replay, live it looked like a bullshit penalty. Only have angles from tv though.
Noticed when Hawks Lost 3 in row… Dolt was MIA
Hawks beat one of worst teams in Hockey… pissed away 3 goal lead…
who could of predicted the PAK line would use the yotes to Pad stats???
Every team in hockey uses the ARI and other bottom 5/10 teams to pad their stats. Except they run the score up to pad a better season total goal differential.
We played in the 1st, we didn’t in the 2nd. It had nothing to do with other team. Same thing for those 3rd periods we should have won 3 and tied 1 in our last 4 loses if we didn’t let up/and played a full 60.
How many times we didn’t play our best in 1st or when we played a good 1st we coasted in 2nd and then played the 3rd. A lot/too much.
The team coasts at times every yr since 2009 during these middle 82 games no matter who were playing our how deep/stacked our roster is.
When we play a full 60 and get beat by other teams good play or our effort/not good play and mistakes, then I would be worried.
Whoo Hoooo we beat a struggling crap team who will not be in the post season .
Way to go boys .
The only alternative was to lose.