By Jon Fromi
The Chicago Blackhawks broke open a tight contest in San Jose Saturday afternoon, scoring four goals in the final 20 minutes. Behind a pair of goals from Patrick Sharp, Chicago wound up 6-2 winners over the Sharks.
First Period-Ben Smith, now on the Sharks, collected a mishandled puck off the stick of Kimmo Timonen and fed Barclay Goodrow coming down the left side in the third minute. Corey Crawford gloved the attempt to snuff out a decent scoring chance. San Jose fired the game’s first ten shots in the early going and Crawford was a big reason that the Hawks weren’t in a hole after the barrage.
A Bryan Bickell holding penalty at 3:46 gave San Jose an early power play. Logan Couture appeared to convert early in the man advantage but Joe Pavelski was ruled to have made contact with Crawford in the blue paint and the goal was disallowed.
Shortly after the penalty was killed off, Sharp took a pass from Antoine Vermette and streaked in on Sharks goalie Antti Niemi. The former Hawks netminder made a pad save of the backhand attempt but Sharp collected the rebound along the goal line and roofed a tough angle shot that caught the twine. Chicago held a 1-0 advantage at the 6:03 mark.
San Jose drew even late in the period after Crawford stopped a Matt Irwin attempt. The rebound went from the stick of Pavelski to Melker Karlsson, who scored at 16:49. Niemi denied a shot by Teuvo Teravainen shortly thereafter and the 1-1 score held up for the remainder of the period.
Second Period-Vermette was called for interference against Joe Thornton in the second minute. Crawford made a pair of stops to deny Patrick Marleau from breaking the tie. Jonathan Toews came down on a shorthanded run but Niemi came out and sent the shot to the corner.
The Hawks got a power play opportunity when Brenden Dillon interfered with Andrew Shaw. At 8:45 of the second frame, Duncan Keith took a pass from Marian Hossa at the right circle and blasted a one-timer that beat Niemi’s stick side.
The 2-1 Hawks lead was short lived. Toews tripped Couture in the 12th minute. Couture got the puck to Thornton at the top of the right circle and Thornton put a shot toward the net. The puck came off of the stick of Brent Seabrook in front of Crawford and the deflection wound up in the back of the Chicago net. With 12:16 down in the period, the score was even at two goals apiece. That’s the way it stood entering the second intermission.
Third Period-At this point, all hell broke loose.
Brandon Saad scored what would be the game-winner just 1:21 into the final period after Mirco Meuller tripped on his own blue line. Saad won control of a bouncing puck, bore down on Niemi and slipped the biscuit under Niemi’s right pad to make it 3-2 Hawks.
At the 4:56 mark, Brad Richards gathered in a pass from Michal Rozsival behind the Sharks net. Richards bided his time, skating backwards around the net before hitting Bickell in the slot. Bickell’s aim was true, making it 4-2.
Sharp netted his second of the afternoon at 15:10 while Chicago was on a power play. The shot from the right circle was set up by Seabrook and Vermette. Hossa tapped in an empty net goal with 2:16 remaining to close out a productive matinee.
Three Stars-Crawford (third), Richards (second), Sharp (first).
Thoughts
-Note to Sharks management: could you make the numbers on the sleeves a little bigger? I can’t quite read them. Of course, I’m watching the game from space.
-Crawford had himself another nice game, stopping 33 of 35 shots and once again keeping his team in the game until the Hawks could blow the game open in the third.
-Andrew Desjarsins was used against his former team. Didn’t really notice that much.
-For 40 minutes, it seemed like Chicago was on its heels just a bit. Many goals in the final 20 minutes proves to be quite the elixir.
-The Hawks host the Islanders Tuesday night. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.
Lines
Versteeg-Toews-Hossa
Saad-Vermette-Teravainen
Bickell-Richards-Sharp
Desjardins-Kruger-Shaw
Keith-Rozsival
Timonen-Seabrook
Oduya-Hjalmarsson
Crawford
——————————————
Jon Fromi
