Hawks Blanked by Blues, Power Play 0-4

The Chicago Blackhawks skated with the Blues in St. Louis on Tuesday night.  Duncan Keith returned to the lineup and Sami Lepisto, Sean O’Donnell, and Bryan Bickell were healthy scratches.  Chicago wore their home red sweaters with the Blues going with their road white’s at home.  The Hawks had good puck possession early on but it was the Blues getting on the board first with a tip in goal from Vladimir Sobotka at 8:15 of the period.  Dan Carcillo took exception to a no call spear and dropped the mittens with Ryan Reaves.  Both got 5 for fighting but I would have to give Carcillo 5 for receiving in that scrap.  Both teams were credited with 8 shots in the period and were even in hits given with 7 apiece.  St. Louis went to the room with a 1-0 advantage. 

The Hawks took an early penalty in the second period when Dan Carcillo went off for kneeing.  In a continuation of the penalty killing nightmare of Sunday night Chris Stewart of the Blues re directed a T.J. Oshie shot for his third goal of the year and a 2-0 Blues lead.  It was the 6^th goal allowed by the Hawks penalty killing unit on the last 7 chances.  Halfway through the period the Hawks got a chance to redeem themselves on the power play and cut the lead in half.  The Hawks nonexistent power play failed to convert.  The Hawks went back to the power play at 14:22 when T.J. Oshie went off for hooking.  With time expiring on the power play Patrick Kane was hauled down to give the Hawks two more minutes on the man advantage.  With a puck loose in the crease Dave Bolland was able to poke one home but the referee waived off that goal because he was in the process of blowing his whistle before the puck went in.  Another power play and another opponent kill and the Hawks were 0-3 for the game.  The Hawks and Blues each had 9 shots apiece for the period.  The Blues led 2-0 after two periods of play.

Hard work by Jonathan Toews early in the third led to another Blues penalty for interference.  The power play looked a little livelier on that go round but the Hawks didn’t convert.  Marcus Kruger of the Hawks took a penalty halfway through the third in what was a must kill for the Blackhawks.  Chicago got the much needed penalty kill but it failed to spark the visitors.  T.J. Oshie provided the night capper with a rather weak goal by Crawford for a 3-0 Blues advantage late in the third.  The Hawks outshot St. Louis badly in the third but failed to dent the back of the net. 

The story of the night once again was special teams.  St. Louis was 1-2 on the man advantage while the Hawks were 0-4.  The power outage is really starting to hurt the Hawks chances to win games and needs to improve in a hurry. 

The Hawks (8-4-3) will play the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time this season on Thursday night in Columbus.  The Hawks won the first meeting in Chicago 5-2.