Merry Christmas, Hawks Beat Jackets 4-1

The National Hockey League leading Chicago Blackhawks took on the league worst Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night at United Center.  Corey Crawford got his second start in a row in net for the Hawks after missing two weeks while trying to find his game.  Marcus Kruger returned to the lineup after being injured last Tuesday against the Penguins.  Dan Carcillo remained out of the line up with an “upper body” injury. Rockford call up Brandon Pirri was in the lineup, and John Scott and Sami Lepisto were the healthy scratches for the Blackhawks. 

The start was sloppy after 4 days off for Christmas but the Hawks got the first power play of the game early.  Antoine Vermette went off for hooking at 2:44.  Columbus killed the penalty but Rick Nash took a dumb penalty in front of the Hawks bench after a Marcus Kruger hit he turned around and punched him in the back of the head and the Hawks went right back to the power play on the roughing call.  The Hawks failed to cash in on the power play.  Corey Crawford made a key save on a great scoring chance by R.J. Umberger to keep the game scoreless.  Brent Seabrook went off for cross checking at 17:12.  Patrick Sharp had a great chance shorthanded but ripped one off cross bar.  The Hawks killed the penalty.  The Christmas hangover was well apparent in the first as the game was rather sloppy.  Columbus outshot the Hawks 13-5 in the first period of play in the scoreless first period.

A minute into the second period a pass just missed Jonathan Toews or he would have been gone a clean breakaway.  Patrick Sharp got the Hawks on the board with his 19^th goal of the season at 4:48 of the second period off a feed from Marian Hossa.  Big Hoss now has points in 8 straight games.  Viktor Stalberg made it 2-0 getting his own rebound and burying it by Steve Mason.  Stalberg continued the scoring at 15:48 with his second goal of the period beating Mason for a 3-0 Hawks lead.  Crawford made a huge save with under a minute to go in the period to keep the Hawks ahead 3-0 after two.  Chicago outshot the Blue Jackets 12-11 in the second period.

Former Hawk James Wisniewski put home a rebound at 3:09 of the third.  Crawford robbed Rick Nash shortly after and pounced on the rebound with a closing Umberger in pursuit.  The Hawks took a penalty at 4:56 and the Blue Jackets went to the power play.  Duncan Keith went off for tripping.  Chicago got a much needed penalty kill after an awful start to the third period that saw the Jackets all over them.  Patrick Kane stole one and nearly made it 4-1 Hawks with just over 9 minutes gone by but Mason shut the door to keep Columbus down two.  The shot was just the first of the period for Chicago.  The Hawks got a late third period power play when Vinny Prospal shot the puck into the crowd for a delay of game penalty.  After a horrible third period the Hawks found themselves with a golden opportunity to ice the game.  Tic Tac Toe Andrew Brunette to Dave Bolland to Marian Hossa and Big Hoss smoked Mason with a one timer for a 4-1 Chicago lead on the power play at 15:45.  Chicago was outshot 14-5 in the third period of play and 38-22 for the game but won the stat that counted 4-1.      

The Blackhawks improved to 23-9-4 on the year and 13-2-3 on home ice.  The Hawks 50 points leads the National Hockey League.  The Hawks will host the Kings on Wednesday night.