Stanley Cup 2010: Antti Niemi, Blackhawks Hold on To Win a Crazy Game Two

"One bad game is enough," Antti Niemi probably thought to himself before his great win against the Philadelphia Flyers. And what he said worked because Niemi led the Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-0 series lead.

Niemi rebounded from letting up five goals in Game One to saving 32 out of 33 shots on the night. The lone goal came on a power play, by Simon Gagne, with 14:40 left in the third period of the game. Besides that though, Niemi was phenomenal because he stopped 14 shots in the third period including a bunch in the last few minutes of the game.

The Blackhawks played their best hockey in the second period of the game. The 'Hawks scored two goals on Michael Leighton, who was playing great before the goals and even after the goals, with three minutes left in the second.

The first goal was by Marian Hossa who got the rebound on a Troy Brouwer shot. Then, less than 30 seconds later, Ben Eager scored a goal on a quick shot that went past Leighton. The 'Hawks did get close to scoring a goal a few moments later, but Leighton was there just in time to stop the threat.

The most disappointing thing, though, wa s the amount of dumb penalties committed by both teams. Although this series is very rough and dirty with all the fighting between players, both teams did commit too many penalties.

One of these penalties by Patrick Sharp led to a goal scored by the Flyers. Also, the penalties committed by the Flyers could have led to better things because the best players on the Flyers were given the penalties.

The likeliness of the Flyers scoring to take the lead early on would have been a lot higher if the Flyers didn't get three penalties in the first period.

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