The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the NHL bottom feeding Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 on Tuesday night to break the 4 game losing streak and improve to 25-13-5 on the year. The Hawks came in struggling but have dominated Columbus this year improving to 4-0-0 against the Jackets. The Hawks had a sluggish first period being outshot 11-5 in the opening 20 minutes of play. Columbus couldn’t dent the net and it remained scoreless after one. Chicago opened the scoring shorthanded after Jamal Mayers drew an instigator penalty on a fight. Dave Bolland took a pass from Marian Hossa on a 2-1 rush and beat Curtis Sanford for a 1-0 Hawks lead. It was Bolland’s 3rd shorthanded goal of the season. The Jackets would tie the game just over three and a half minutes later on a goal by R.J. Umberger. But the Viktor Stalberg show would take over from there. Stalberg struck twice to give Chicago a 3-1 advantage 6:32 into the third period. Just 27 seconds later it was Ben Smith flipping a backhand shot over Sanford’s shoulder to give the Hawks a 4-1 advantage. Columbus would add an Antoine Vermette goal less than two minutes later to cut the lead to 4-2. The Jackets would pull Sanford late for the extra attacker. Stalberg would cap the night off chasing down a loose puck for the empty netter and the hat trick causing it to rain hats at United Center. Corey Crawford stopped 32 of 34 shots to earn the victory. The Hawks were outshot 34-25 for the game. The Hawks penalty killers were a perfect 5 for 5 with a shorthanded goal, but the power play was 0 for 4 on the evening. The Hawks improved to 15-5-4 on home ice for the season. The Hawks will host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in a big Western Conference match up.
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