Hawks Fall To Redwings

Sunday started off great but ended badly. It could have been a big day with a win the Hawks would have stayed in first place in the western conference while also knocking the rival Redwings down to 9th. It wouldn't have meant the Wings couldn't make the playoffs but I know anything the Hawks can do to avoid a first round matchup with them in the playoffs is a must.

First period went very well with the Hawks leading after one. Huet looked good early but as the period went on he started to look desperate, diving after pucks due to him being out of position. Duncan Keith scored his career tie 13th goal on the season while Andrew Ladd scored his 13th as well.

Then came the second period where everything went the Redwings way. Within the first minute the Wings got called for holding and put the Hawks on the powerplay. Patrick Kane shot and scored very quickly or at least we all thought. But we were all wrong as the Hawks were called for goalie interference. Then for a six minute span the Redwings ran wild scoring 4 goals between the 4 minute and 10 minute mark that saw Huet get pulled after allowing his 4th.

Were all four his fault? Probably not as the defense seemed to play very sloppy but as players have said several times throughout the season Niemi is much better at bailing out the defense when they make a mistake then Huet is.

Niemi played very solid for the rest of the game only allowing one goal to Pavel Datsyuk on a break away with almost no time left in the second. Hawks trailed 5-2

The third period saw Andrew Ladd light the lamp twice giving him a hat trick for the day.

Overall the Hawks played a sloppy game but received no favors from the refs who seemed to miss a lot of calls while also making up a few . Also the Hawks seemed to be very trigger shy missing several great scoring chances by making an unneeded pass.

This also was the second time since they have returned from the Olympic break that they had to pull the goalie. First Niemi against the Islanders and now Huet against the Wings.

Makes you wonder if they made the right choice by not trading for a goalie before the deadline.