Seeing as how the other night's SO win wasn't as easy as it should have been, this one was going to prove to be a bit tougher, on the ass end of a back-to-back road trip, no less. The Lightning are also 3-1 at home, which didn't bode well for the Hawks. The Hawks could ill afford to be sloppy on defense with the ringers this team has on offense, which is exactly what they got away with Thursday night. This time the Hawks were going with Razor Emery in net and without Deuce on defense again, so they needed to be extra careful on defense.
The Hawks came out fast and furious in the opening period and had a majority of the chances, along with 15 shots on net. Unfortunately, it yielded them no goals. No goals either way, in fact. The second period looked like a completely different game, in a completely different decade, with the teams putting up a total of EIGHT goals on the board. No defense allowed, here. Oddly enough, the game was still tied when the dust settled, though. The third period went back to the trend, and neither team was able to score. The Hawks then went into extra time for the second game in a row, and this one didn't turn out quite the same, as the Hawks broke down and gave up the OT winner late in the extra period.
- Between El Capitan and Vik Stalberg, the Hawks had all the momentum in the first 5 minutes of the game. Vik had the first 3 shots and a couple of steals. Tazer had a beautiful rush up the right side of the ice, making the defensemen look like they were standing still.
- Stalberg continued his solid first period by finishing with 4 shots on net, and 3 or 4 more that missed the cage. I have no problem with him throwing the puck at the net. It sure beats a turnover or no chance at all. People will be critical of his aim, but at least he was there to get the puck in the right general direction. Remember, he's still trying to figure out who he's heven going to be playing with on a nightly basis.
- The Hawks were FINALLY able to come though on the powerplay, after what seemed like a thousand chances. Kane dished it to Tazer, who let a quick blind backhand pass to Shooter, who was sitting wide open on the back door, with a gaping net. 1-1
- Kaner set up Boss to tie the game up again, just a few minutes after giving up the lead. The Hawks won the faceoff and worked a rotation play to perfection, with Boss finding himself wide open on the back door, and Kaner feeding him the puck. Situations don't get drawn up any better than that.
- CAR BOMB put the Hawks up 3-2 with his first Blackhawks goal, in the second. First, he made a beautiful defensive play to poke the puck off the Tampa defender, and then out ahead. He then outraced the defenders, controlled the puck, pulled the puck to his backhand and roofed it. All while running out of gas. Beautiful goal from beginning to end.
- Kaner quickly followed up the Car Bomb tally, 12 seconds later, with a great feed to Sharpie on a give-n-go, to put the Hawks up 4-2.
- Seabrook and Hammer gave up a break-a-way to Stamkos in the middle of the first period, but Razor was able to follow him across the crease and keep the game 0-0. That Stamkos kid is decent, isn't he?
- The Lightning took a 1-0 lead, 15 seconds onto the second period on a rebound, that Razor couldn't control. Seabrook was slow tying Stamkos up, who was able to quickly poke it in the net.
- The Hawks gave up the lead on a complete cluster fuck of a play. Leddy and O'Donnell got caught flat footed on St. Louis. Bolland pushed the eventual goal scorer into the crease, where he was basically in Emery's way and was able to coral the puck off his skate and put it into the net.
- The third Tampa goal was a direct result of Nick Leddy not controlling the puck that was originally right on his stick. He knew he had it between his skates, he was wasn't able to gather himself enough to either kick it ahead, or move his feet to get his stick on it. So, he stood there with his head down like a dog chasing his tail, looking at his feet, Stamkos knocked his wiener in the dirt. Leddy then took his time getting back up as he pouted, and was late getting back into the play. When Purcell went around the net, Leddy had PLENTY of time to tie up Stamkos' stick and decided to try dry humping him from behind, instead. Stamkos had a clean chance to deposit it past Emery.
- Stammer got his hat trick goal on a powerplay. Hammer and Seabrook got caught up in front of the net, and Stamkos snuck out on the back door. St. Louis faked the shot, and hit Stammer for a one timer on an open net.
- Nick Leddy was a sign of futility in the second period going MINUS 3! No mater how you slice that, it's not good, in fact it's TERRIBLE Slice it up, and make excuses all you'd like, but the fact is that if you're out there for 3 even strength goals against in one period, something is wrong.
- Not only was Leddy pretty undesirable in the second, but Lurch, Bolly, Frodo, and Bick were all minus 2.
- The Lightning won the game on a play that went bad fast. Bolly lost his stick and the play broke down fast. The Lightning were able to keep the puck in the zone, and it ended up on the stick of St. Louis who make a great pass over Leddy's stick to a wide open Lecavalier, and that's as good as money.