Chicago Blackhawks Continue Their Winning Ways

The Chicago Blackhawks extended their winning streak to eight games tonight in front of a near-sellout crowd at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre with a 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.  

Tonight’s win solidifies the Blackhawks fourth-place position in the Western Conference and has them knocking on the door of the San Jose Sharks for third. With San Jose coming to town later next week, it will certainly be interesting to see how each team plays through the week.

Both Toronto and Chicago came out strong tonight. Chicago scored quickly in the first period with forwards Marian Hossa and Michael Frolik both scoring at 1:10 and 4:13 respectively.

Later in the period, a series of penalties against Toronto gave Chicago a five on three power play. Yet they were unable to capitalize. With 4:00 left in the first, team captain Jonathan Toews scored, with assists by Hossa and Patrick Kane, for the final tally of the period.

The second period was more of the same with Chicago clearly in command of the game. Goaltender Corey Crawford made some incredible saves, stopping everything that was shot his way. 

At 7:28, Forward Joffrey Lupul put Toronto on the board with a shot from just inside the blue line that got past Crawford. Just over three minutes later Viktor Stalberg found the back of the net, pushing Chicago’s lead to 4 to 1 halfway through the second period. 

The Blackhawks ended the second with another puck past downtrodden Toronto goaltender James Reimer. Perfectly positioned to take advantage of a rebound off Troy Brouwer's shot, Brian Bickell scored Chicago’s fifth goal.

The Hawks were clearly in charge going into the third period. Yet, as in the past few games, Chicago found their feet going into the final period. Earlier in the season, Chicago was quick out of the gate, yet they backed off or got complacent once they had commanding leads, allowing their opponents to rally.

The third period started with a change in goal for Toronto as head coach Ron Wilson sat Calder Cup contender James Reimer and put in back-up goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere for the remainder of the game. 

Toronto forward Mikhail Grabovski was denied on a penalty shot by Crawford, which only added to Chicago's resolve going into the latter part of the period. Toronto kept coming, scoring another goal which appeared to bounce off of Chicago forward Brent Seabrook and past Crawford. Toronto’s Colby Armstrong was credited with the goal. 

With just under one minute left in the game, Toronto added their third goal of the night as Luke Schenn scored a wrist shot past Crawford’s stick hand.

While both teams are in the hunt for playoff positions in their respective conferences, Chicago had the definitive edge in this fast-paced, hard-hitting battle. Chicago came out on top thanks to some serious hustle in the neutral zone and a no-surrender attitude that has been building over the past few weeks.

Corey Crawford made the argument for his own bid for the Calder Cup before a Hockey Night in Canada TV crowd.  Crawford has been outperforming himself night after night and those outside of Chicago have begun to take notice.

The only concern from tonight’s game was a minor injury to the right hand index finger of defenseman Duncan Keith. He did not go into the locker room but did continually ice his finger after injuring it about half way through the third period, and did not return to the game.

The fact that he wasn’t taken for x-rays and the like is a good sign. Considering how tough Keith is, we should expect to see him on the ice in Florida on Tuesday as the Blackhawks take on the Eastern Conference’s 13^th place Panthers. 

A few months ago the Blackhawk faithful were concerned that the team looked out of sync and disjointed. In the past few weeks, however, the team has found their team cohesion, and they couldn’t have picked a better time to begin their crescendo into playoff season. 

Depending on the outcome of the San Jose Sharks v. Dallas Stars game later tonight, the Blackhawks could be pounding instead of knocking on that third place door in the Western Conference before they face the Panthers on Tuesday.

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