Hawks Slip By Islanders 5-4 in a Shoot Out

The Hawks took on the Islanders on Friday night at United Center.  The Hawks came out flying with great chances in the first minute including hitting the goal post.  However, it was the Hawks taking a dumb too many men on the ice penalty that there is absolutely not excuse for, especially when you are the worst penalty killing team in the league, and the Islanders slumping power play made them pay.  Kyle Okposo tapped in a rebound to give the Long Islanders the 1-0 lead.  The Hawks power play unit got a chance of their own shortly after at the 5:23 mark of the first period as Steve Staios of the Islanders went off for slashing.  The Hawks failed to convert on the man advantage.  But at the 10:27 mark on a tic tac toe passing play it was Dan Carcillo to Sean O’Donnell to Andrew Brunette and into an open net for a Hawk’s goal and a 1-1 hockey game.  It was the veteran winger’s 6^th goal of the season.  At 14:27 the Islanders made it a 2-1 game as Matt Moulson scored his 9^th of the season beating Corey Crawford with a wrist shot to give the Isles the lead.  Chicago outshot New York 14-13 in the first.  The Islanders went to the dressing room with a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play in another sloppy defensive period for the boys in the Indian Head Sweaters. 

Early in the second period it was the Islanders going back to the power play with a lazy offensive zone penalty on Viktor Stalberg for tripping.  The Hawks were much more aggressive on the penalty kill and got the job done the second time around.  Just a minute and a half later it was Ben Smith scoring his first goal of the season off a passing play from Patrick Kane to tie the game at 2-2.  Ben Smith scored from his office in front of the net, an area the Hawks need to invest more time in.  The Hawks got a power play chance of their own at 13:11 of the second period when Viktor Stalberg got leveled in front of the Islander’s net off the play.  With Dylan Reese off for cross checking the Hawks failed to take advantage and the game remained 2-2.  At 16:27 the Hawks went back to the power play as Steve Staios went off for tripping However, it was Steve Montador heading to the box for a double minor for high sticking in front of the Islanders net and the very quick end of the Hawks power play.  But it was Captain Serious Jonathan Toews with an amazing shorthanded play stripping the puck from Milan Jurcina and beating Al Montoya for his 14^th goal of the year shorthanded at 18:41.  The Hawks took a 3-2 advantage to the dressing room after 40 minutes of play in a period they absolutely dominated.  Chicago outshot New York 15-2 in the second period. 

The Islanders started the third period with 52 seconds of carryover power play time from the Steve Montador double minor.  The Hawks penalty killing woes continued as the Isles scored with 6 seconds left on the man advantage as the puck bounced right into the slot and was slammed home by PA Parenteau for the Islanders second power play goal of the game to tie the game at 3-3.  The Hawks went back to the power play themselves early in the third.  It was Patrick Sharp putting the Hawks back in the lead with a power play strike from the top of the circle of a feed from Patrick Kane.  The Hawks went right back to the lead 4-3 on a key power play goal at 5:08.  Jonathan Toews pulled down Parenteau shortly after to send the Isles back to the man advantage.  The Hawks were able to kill the penalty but not before some anxious moments as the Islanders had way too much power play offensive zone time.  But it was the Islanders tying the game on another Hawks neutral zone turnover with Nino Niederreiter making the Hawks pay at 8:55 of the third.  That was all the scoring for the sloppy sloppy sloppy third period for Chicago that saw the visitors outshoot them a ridiculous 23-7 for the period.

In overtime it was back and featured more sloppy passing by the home team.  The game headed to a shootout tied at 4 apiece.  The Hawks won it in the shootout as Corey Crawford stopped all three shots he faced and Jonathan Toews scored the only goal in the shootout.