Blackhawks dominate Flames in second period, win 7-1

November 20, 12:08 AMChicago Blackhawks ExaminerDieter Kurtenbach

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Chicago Blackhawks Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Cristobal Huet was as awesome as s'mores pop tarts against Calgary. He made 27 bodacious saves.

(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

The last time the Blackhawks took on the Flames they had to come back from a 5-0 deficit. Six unanswered goals later, the Blackhawks won in overtime. In the second matchup of the season between these two teams, the Flames wanted to extract revenge against the Blackhawks in front of their Albertan fans.

The Blackhawks would not give them the satisfaction.

The Hawks opened the floodgates on the Flames in the second period, scoring five unanswered goals after the Flames tied the game 1-1 early in the middle frame. The Hawks finished the period with two powerplay goals in 36 seconds and a 6-1 lead; the Flames would be booed off the ice by the hometown fans and goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff would not return for the third period. The Hawks would go on to win the game 7-1.

The first Blackhawk goal was scored by Troy Brouwer on the powerplay. After a point shot by Duncan Keith was saved by Kiprusoff, Brouwer fought off his check in front of the net and was able to elevate it over Kiprusoff's extended leg pads. The goal was Brouwer's fourth powerplay goal this season, his sixth goal overall. Of Brouwer's nine points, five have come with the man-advantage. [My formula of Brouwer = Powerplay success is very much a truism]

A carry over powerplay for Calgary between the first and second periods would not last long, as Jerome Iginla and Olli Jokinen broke out after the opening faceoff of the second period. Iginla, taking the puck into the zone from the right wing made a simple pass to the centerman Jokinen, who fired a tight wristshot past Cristobal Huet to tie the game.

For the Flames, it was all downhill from there.

The Hawks would waste no time in untying the score. Soon after the Jokinen goal the Blackhawks went to the powerplay. On that man-advantage Brent Seabrook fired a one-time slapshot on net from the left point. The powerful drive was deflected at the bottom of the left wing circle by Kris Versteeg and Kiprusoff was unable to react to the redirection in time.

With the score 2-1, two game changing plays happened to swing the momentum the Blackhawks' way. One, a huge open ice hit by Niklas Hjalmarsson on former Hawk Rene Bourque, and two, a jumping save by Cristobal Huet, who did his best superman impression to keep the puck out of the net.

From then on, luck was on the Blackhawks' side. And if the Calgary Flames didn't already know it, they certainly found out that luck and skill are a lethal combination.

Dustin Byfuglien got off the schnide with a great individual effort to give the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead. Poking away the puck at the Blackhawks' defensive blueline, he picked up a touch pass from Patrick Sharp at center ice and skated to right wing as Sharp skated up the middle to give the Blackhawks a two on one advantage into the zone. Byfuglien waited for Sharp to enter the play and when he did, the big winger fired a routine wristshot from the right wing faceoff. With Sharp charging hard Kiprusoff was caught off guard by the shot, which was only remarkable in its placement. It beat Kiprusoff on the far side. The nearly unassisted tally was the first even strength goal for Byfuglien in nine games, his last coming on Oct. 24 against Nashville.

The Blackhawks were far from done. A little less than five minutes later Duncan Keith caught the Flames on a full line shift. Keith made a tape to tape pass from deep in the Blackhawks' defensive zone to Andrew Ladd at the opposite blueline, springing Ladd for a breakaway. One on one against Kiprusoff, Ladd did just enough of a drag move to elicit a move from the Flames goaltender. With Kiprusoff then in motion, Ladd was able to easily put the puck in the net for a 4-1 Blackhawks lead. The goal was Ladd's fourth of the year. Ladd has an affinity for playing against the Flames, the goal was Ladd's ninth regular season point in eight regular season games against Calgary in his career.

The Blackhawks really put the game out of sight for the Flames with two powerplay goals in the final two minutes of the period. The Blackhawks found themselves with a 5-on-3 powerplay when Dion Phaneuff was tagged with an instigator penalty after a fight with Brent Seabrook. Already on the powerplay, the Hawks had half a minute of two-man-advantage. Zero for five on the year with the two man advantage to that point, the Blackhawks finally made the most of their opportunity. Running the point solo, Cam Barker made a slap-pass to an unmarked Patrick Sharp in the corner. Sharp, looking weak-side to a cutting Patrick Kane, attempted to pass the puck through two Flames defenders, Jonathan Toews and Kipprusoff. It worked, sort of. Toews knocked the pass on to the wide open Kane who buried the puck in the for-all-intensive-purposes empty net. [The scorecard doesn't credit Toews with an assist, but I know what I saw, he knocked that puck on.]

Thirty six seconds later the Blackhawks struck again, this time with just the one-man-advantage. A brilliant cross ice pass by Kane from the right wing halfboards found an unmarked Kris Versteeg on the weak side. Versteeg was able to one-time the pass into the, again, open net for possibly the easiest powerplay goal the Blackhawks have scored all year. The second of the game for Versteeg marked the first multiple goal game for a Blackhawk this season. They were the last team in the NHL to have a multiple goal scorer.

Down 6-1, the Flames entered the third period a defeated team and played like such for the final 20 minutes. Ben Eager was able to score his first goal of the season in the final five minutes of the game when Tomas Kopecky took a puck off the boards and tucked it back out in front of the net. Kopecky made a touch pass to an unmarked Eager and the enforcer was able to bury the puck past replacement goaltender Curtis McElhinney. The goal was only one of two Blackhawks shots in the final period.

Feathers in the Headdress:
Third Star: Duncan Keith
I'm out of superlatives. Three assists, one of them in spectacular fashion, to go along with shutting down Jerome Iginla - that's a quality evening at the rink. At this point it's more uncommon for Keith not to be earning a feather for a game well done. I'll go out and say that Duncan Keith should be the front runner for the Norris trophy right now, with one quarter of the season finished.

Second Star: Patrick Kane
Patrick Kane received a gift and gave a gift on his 21st birthday. First he received a great knock-on from Jonathan Toews [not Patrick Sharp] to set up an easy powerplay goal. Then Kane made a remarkable cross-ice pass to a wide open Kris Versteeg, giving him an easier goal than Kane's 36 seconds beforehand. All in all the Blackhawks powerplay went four for five on the evening. Let that sink in a bit...four for five. So with two points, a birthday cake and because Truck Brouwer couldn't be here tonight to accept this award, Patrick Kane becomes the honorary captain of the powerplay. A powerplay which was the second star of the evening, but we can pretend it was Kane who was the winner.

First Star: Cristobal Huet
It was a 7-1 game, Cristobal Huet could have given up six goals and still won the game. So why is he the second star? Because the first period was hardly dominated by the Blackhawks. It was, though, dominated by Cristobal Huet. The goaltender made 27 saves, 10 in the first period, and kept his team in striking position despite great scoring chances early on for the Flames . After being decimated by Calgary the last time he took the ice against them, Huet responded with a great performance. His second period save will be replayed amongst the best saves of the year. All in all, this game would have been much different had Huet not been on his A-game from the git-go. Because of that Cristobal Huet is the first star of the game. Remember when people wanted to run him and his pads out of town? Me neither...