With big lead shattered, Hawks rebound in 6-5 win
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Aparently the Blackhawks did learn something from last weekend's loss at Minnesota, when they blew a 4-goal lead in the third period.
The Hawks squandered another lead on Saturday at Nationwide Arena, but this time they recovered with a big third period of their own to beat the Blue Jackets 6-5 in the opener of their eight-game road trip.
Two power-play goals by Jonathan Toews and a goal from Ben Eager on the fourth line turned a 4-3 deficit into a 6-4 lead.
Columbus got a late goal, but the Hawks were able to hold on at the end.
"A lot of offense and a lot of goals," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was an entertaining game, but maybe not so much for the coaches."
It wasn't a fun game for the goalies either, particularly Cristobal Huet, who after getting beat by Rick Nash at 7:12 of the second period on a goal that put Columbus ahead 4-3 smashed his stick to pieces against the post.
"I was mad at myself," Huet said. "I always look at what I could have done better. I was frustrated because the game was 3-1 and now we're down 4-3. It's not something you're proud of, but it was good to let it out on my post.
"It's not fun being a goalie in those games, but you have to battle through. I think everybody was frustrated on our bench in the second and we came back strong. We got guys capable of putting the puck in the net. It's amazing."
Toews made it 4-4 with his first power-play goal at 4:07 of the third period, a snap shot from the left side off a nice feed from Patrick Kane, who had 3 assists.
A hard-working shift from the fourth line led to Colin Fraser feeding Eager for the go-ahead goal at 8:29 of the third.
"Huge goal," Quenneville said. "Nice couple plays around the net, and Benny a good finish."
Toews' second power-play goal came with 4:57 to play from inside the left circle. The captain had been kicking himself earlier for passing up some good scoring chances.
"I just wanted to make the right play and sometimes the safest thing to do is shoot the puck," Toews said. "You've got to take advantage of those opportunities. That's what I tried to do in the third and I was lucky enough to have them go in."
The Hawks were 2-for-3 on the power play and now have at least 1 power-play goal in 11 of their last 13 games.
"Our power play has been pretty dangerous as we've gone along here," Quenneville said. "I definitely like the progress since the start of the year."
The Hawks had a great start, taking leads of 2-0 and 3-1 on goals by Andrew Ladd, Troy Brouwer and Marian Hossa.
But Columbus got the next 3 goals as the Hawks allowed too many odd-man rushes.
"A lot of their offensive chances came off the rush, and as forwards we never seemed to have the high guy," Toews said. "We focused on that (in the third period)."
The Blue Jackets are the worst defensive team in the Western Conference and did little to contain the Hawks.
"I thought we looked slow defensively, but they do that to a lot of teams," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said of the Hawks. "I thought both teams' defenses were vulnerable."
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Tim Sassone's game tracker</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Blackhawks 6, Blue Jackets 5</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Three stars</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">1. Jonathan Toews, Hawks: Two clutch power-play goals in the third period and an assist for the captain.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">2. Patrick Kane, Hawks: Three assists with a pair coming on Toews' big goals that brought the Hawks from behind.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">3. Rick Nash, Blue Jackets: Two goals for a great player stuck on a bad team.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Key stats: The Hawks won despite losing 54 percent of the faceoffs and getting outhit 27-14.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Shake it off: Niklas Hjalmarsson, John Madden and Dustin Byfuglien were each minus-2.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Blackhawks game day</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, 11:30 a.m. Sunday</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>TV:</b> Channel 5</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Radio:</b> WGN 720-AM</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>What to watch:</b> The Red Wings are slowly getting healthy but lost 3-2 in a shootout at Dallas on Saturday. Henrik Zetterberg, Dan Cleary and Jonathan Ericsson are back from their injuries, but Tomas Holmstrom (broken foot) and Niklas Kronwall (knee) remain out. Detroit went into the weekend just 7 points out of fourth place in the Western Conference.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Season series:</b> Hawks lead 2-1 and have shut out the Red Wings 3-0 in the last two meetings.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Next:</b> Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><i>- Tim Sassone</i></p>