On Sunday night, the Blackhawks hosted the San Jose Sharks in their final home game before the Christmas break. The Hawks were returning home from a visit to Buffalo on a Saturday afternoon snoozefest. Coach Q decided to ride the hot hand in net with Crawford, instead of playing local hero Scott Darling. Another curveball thrown at us late, was the late scratch of Marian Hossa with an upper body injury.
The scoring would be fast and furious in the first period. The Hawks would be the first to get on the scoreboard. The #AK72Line would strike first, with Artem Anisimov found a loose puck and hammered it home to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. The lead would prove to be short lived for the Hawks. The Sharks would score on a breakaway 3 minutes later, and followed that up with a power play goal to take a 2-1 lead. Much like the Hawks lead, the Sharks lead would also prove to be short lived. Just under 2 minutes later, Patrick Kane would tie the game at 2, and that's where we'd stand after the opening 20 minutes.
In the second period, the scoring would calm down, but the scoring chances for both teams would be a plenty. The teams combined for a total of 25 shots in the second. Despite the Hawks having 13, it would be the Sharks that found the back of the net. With just over 5 minutes remaining in the period, Joel Pavelski would add his 16th goal of the season to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead. As the horn sounded ending the second, the score would remain 3-2 in favor of the Sharks.
In the opening minutes of the third period, the Hawks would try to hand the Sharks the win with some sloppy play. The Hawks were forced to kill off back to back power plays after penalties by TVR and Patrick Kane. The penalty kill would come through, and the Hawks would gain some momentum from it. Right after the second kill, Andrew Shaw would score to tie the game at three. Down the stretch the Sharks had some quality chances, but Corey Crawford would stand tall and after 60 minutes, we'd head to overtime.
Without #TeamMiserable watching together, we'd actually get to see the 3 on 3 gimmick, unlike yesterday during the #PuckinHostileRoadWatch. As is the case, the 3 on 3 didn't last long. The Hawks would get a 2 on 1 featuring Kane and Toews, which meant it was good night, and drive home safely. Toews buried a shot, and sent the UC crowd home happy with a 4-3 win for the Hawks.
- After being crushed at the dot in the 1st period, the Hawks bounced back to win the face off battle 36-35.
- Normally allowing 3 goals isn't a great performance, but Corey Crawford was huge in net for the Hawks. In the end he made 33 saves, but his best was a glove save on Joonas Donskoi in the 3rd period.
- Artem Anisimov had a solid night. He was all over the place in the first period, and netted the Hawks opening goal.
- Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, to go with a team high +4 on the night.
- Phillip Danault had an assist tonight. Its only been 2 games, but so far so good. No complaints thus far, as much as that pains me to say as a Marcus Kruger fan.
- It was good to see the PK bounce back and kill off both of the Sharks power plays in the 3rd period, after yielding a PPG in the 1st period.
- Marian Hossa was a late scratch tonight due to an upper body injury. It also looks like he won't be available on Tuesday night when the Hawks visit Dallas.
- Hossa's late absence meant we were treated to 4:38 of The Manshitter, to go along with a fight and a -2 on the night.
- Duncan Keith's positioning on Donskoi's breakaway goal in the 1st period was flat out awful. I can only imagine the outrage if that was Rozsival instead of Keith.
- Just as we say we're impressed with Dennis Rasmussen, he gets rewarded by Q with 6:59 of ice time. Welcome to Mooseport, or as we say Q' Doghouse.
- The Hawks tried to piss this game away in the opening minutes of the 3rd period with back to back penalties. Talk about bad timing for that.
- Remember the hype of "Hertl Power" because of 1 game by Tomas Hertl? First of all, how dare you spin the Ninja Turtles like that, but secondly, that lazy change by him in OT is what lead to the Kane and Toews 2 on 1. On second thought, thank you Tomas Hertl for being an average player.
- The Hawks yielded double digit shot totals to the Sharks in all 3 periods tonight. You'd like to see them tighten up the defense a tad bit.
- Brent Burns, shave your fucking beard. God only knows what the fuck is living in it.
