Out of Gas Hawks Fall to Coyotes 4-1 @ United Center

The Chicago Blackhawks were back on home ice Tuesday night for the first time since the 3-3-0 Circus trip.  The Hawks took on the Coyotes in the second meeting of the year between the two teams.  The Hawks came out flying after a roaring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner and fed off the energy early on creating numerous chances.  The Coyotes weathered the storm early and the game settled in a bit.  There was a ton of end to end action and few whistles in the first.  At 15:53 Phoenix got a weak goal that somehow dribbled between Corey Crawford’s glove and pad and off his back side and in for a 1-0 Coyotes lead.  Daymond Langkow scored the backhand goal that should have been stopped.  Phoenix outshot Chicago 8-7 in the rapidly moving first period of play.  Chicago was strong in the first twenty minutes but need to clean up sloppy play in the neutral zone and get pucks deep. 

The Hawks came out flat in a more defensive second period of play.  It took the Hawks nearly 10 minutes to record their first shot on goal for the period.  At 9:54 it was Shane Doan making it 2-0 Coyotes with a shot that beat Crawford high glove side on a shot that appeared to fool the Hawks net minder.  The Coyotes got the first power play of the game in a must kill situation for the Hawks down 2-0 when Sean O’Donnell shot the puck into the crowd and went off for delay of game.  The Hawks killed the penalty and kept it a two goal game.  The Hawks were outshot 10-8 in the middle period. 

Early in the third it was Radim Vrbata scoring from the goal line on a shot that deflected off Ducnan Keith and over the pad of Crawford to give the Coyotes a 3-0 lead at 1:12 of the third.  At 5:02 it was Ray Whitney making it 4-0 Phoenix on another soft goal.  Crawford was pulled after the fourth goal in what was by far his worst effort of the season. Mike Smith stopped Dan Carcillo late in the third on the Hawks best chance of the game off a sweet feed from Patrick Kane but the Hawks appeared out of gas following the road trip for most of the third period.  The Hawks got a late power play when Marian Hossa was cross checked by Rostislav Klesla.  Patrick Sharp got the Hawks on the board on the power play to avoid the shut out with less than a minute to play.  It was too little too late and the out of gas Hawks fell to the Coyotes 4-1.    

Chicago fell to 7-2-2 on home ice and 14-8-3 overall.  It marked just the 2^nd time all season the Hawks failed to record a point on home ice.