Blackhawks-Stars: Stars Have Frightful Night In Chicago

Game Recap:

This is the Chicago Blackhawks that everyone was expecting coming into the season, good special teams, solid goaltending and good primary/secondary scoring. The 'Hawks were able to take advantage of the Stars major weakness this season, their goaltending. Tobias Stephan was coming off of a very solid win versus the Minnesota Wild but was unable to keep the explosive 'Hawks offense out of the net. 

For the 'Hawks it was a night of firsts, Cam Barker, Brent Sopel, Dustin Byfuglien, andAndrew Ladd all scored their first goals of the season. Many would say that the lack of secondary scoring is what has really troubled the 'Hawks in the early going, they had been depending on their first and second lines for most of the scoring this season.

As for the Stars, this has to be quite a disappointing loss as they were coming off a major win versus the Minnesota Wild and seemed to have been gaining momentum after a relatively slow start. Early on the Stars and their first line of Ribeiro, Morrow and Eriksson looked unstoppable as the netted a fairly simple goal versus Nikolia Khabibulin. As I was watching the game I couldn't remember how often the 'Hawks announcers said, "Ribeiro behind the net."

The 'Hawks would gain the momentum heading into the 2nd period as Martin Havlat would make a beautiful pass to Patrick Kane giving the 'Hawks a 2-1 lead. Then in 2nd period it would seem as though the Stars would regain the momentum as Steve Ott would beat Khabibulin on a break away.

However the 'Hawks would step up to the challenge as defensemen Brent Sopel would ring what would turn out to be the game winning goal off the post and into the Stars net. In the third the 'Hawks would add two goals, one from Andrew Ladd and one from the struggling  Dustin Byfuglien.

This win for the 'Hawks could be a major turning point for the season because they have finally been able to produce outside of the top six forwards. Although Jonathan Toews has not scored a goal this season it was nice to see two struggling 'Hawks, Andrew Ladd and Dustin Byfuglien, get their first goals of the season. It is just a matter of time for the young captain, patience Blackhawks fans.

Three Stars of the Game:

1. Patrick Kane (1 goal, 2 assists)

2. Cam Barker (1 goal, 1 assist)

3. Brent Sopel (1 goal)

Michael Wagner's player of the game:

For my non-three-star player of the game tonight I will need to go with an entire line, the Chicago Blackhawks 3rd line. Tonight we saw two goals produced by that line in the 3rd period to put the game away. Byfuglien and Ladd had been struggling to get points early in the season but after tonight it seems like their line is poised to break out.

 

Next Game(s):

After this game both teams will play on the road tomorrow as the Dallas Stars will take on the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Columbus Blue-Jackets.

 

*Side note: I would like to send my thoughts and prayers out to Ken Armer who is currently in the hospital. Ken has been my biggest supporter and gave me my shot at community leader so I hope he has a speedy recovery. Get Well Soon Ken.