The Chicago Blackhawks coming off back to back wins in Columbus on Thursday night and at home against the Calgary Flames on Friday night faced off against the red hot Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night in their last home game before the Circus trip. Jonathan Toews opened the scoring at 4:55 of the first period after he stepped out from behind the net and wripped a wrister by former Hawks net minder Nikolai Khabibulin. Just 34 seconds later it was Patrick Kane setting the table for a rushing Steve Montador who made a nice move backhand forehand to beat Khabibulin for a 2-0 Hawks lead early. At 11:41 Ryan Smyth jammed home a puck that bounced off Corey Crawford to cut the lead to 2-1 Chicago. The Hawks got a power play at 14:21 when Jordan Eberle went off for holding. The Hawks had some good chances and finally cashed in when a Nick Leddy point blast was redirected by Steve Montador for his 2nd goal of the period to put the Hawks back in front by two. The fast moving first period ended with the Hawks leading 3-1 after a solid first twenty minutes of play. Chicago outshot Edmonton 10-8 in the first.
Just 12 seconds into the second period Captain Serious scored his second of the game as he banged in a Marian Hossa rebound for a 4-1 Hawks advantage. Rostislav Olesz took a poor penalty for hooking on Ben Eager at 2:28. The Hawks killed a minute and a half of Oilers power play time before the power play was cut short when Jordan Eberle went off for high sticking Brent Seabrook. Edmonton killed the penalty and Jordan Eberle got a clean breakaway out of the sin bin and beat Crawford to cut the lead to 4-2. Brent Seabrook was injured on the power play when he went hard into the end boards and went straight to the Hawks dressing room. Another solid shift by the Toews, Hossa, Stalberg line ended with a Duncan Keith goal and a 5-2 Hawks advantage. It was Keith’s second goal of the year. Patrick Kane went off for high sticking at 9:23 and the Oilers went back to the power play. The Hawks penalty killing unit was up to the task and got their second kill of the period. The Hawks got a power play of their own when Ryan Smyth went to the sin bin for tripping at 15:01. The Hawks peppered the net but Khabibulin shut the door for an Oilers kill. The Oilers got a power play after a Ryan Smyth goal was disallowed when Viktor Stalberg was whistled for playing with a broken stick at 18:01 of the period. Edmonton cashed in with a power play goal in the final minute of play as Shawn Horcoff redirected a point shot to cut the Hawks lead to 5-3. The Hawks outshot the Oilers 11-8 for the middle period and took a 5-3 advantage into the final twenty minutes of play.
Things settled down a bit in the third but it was the Hawks who went to the power play at 12:17 of the period Theo Peckham went off for holding. The Edmonton penalty killers got the job done despite a great chance by Kane that he shot wide of the net after getting himself into a great scoring area with a couple nifty moves. Dan Carcillo added an empty netter for his 2nd of the year to ice the game with under 2 minutes to play and give the Hawks a 6-3 home win. Chicago outshot Edmonton 14-7 for the period and 35-23 for the game.
The Hawks improved to 11-4-3 on the year, and 7-1-2 at home. The Hawks now have a National Hockey League leading 25 points on the season. The Hawks depart on the annual Circus trip and will play the next 6 games on the road. The Hawks will be in Vancouver on Wednesday night looking to avenge a brutal 6-2 home ice loss to the rival Canucks a week ago.
Dave Bolland missed his third straight game after blocking a shot with the back of his leg against the Blues. Bolland is expected to make the trip to British Columbia and could be in the lineup Wednesday night. Brent Seabrook went hard into the end boards and left with a “lower body” injury and did not return. I am hoping he doesn’t miss an extended period of time but he didn’t look good when he left the ice.
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