Crazy bounce on penalty shot proves costly to Hawks
Viktor Stalberg's luck seems to be going from bad to worse.
Just three days after Stalberg had a shot at an open net tipped wide by teammate Dave Bolland at Anaheim, the Blackhawks' winger suffered more frustration Wednesday night when he missed on a penalty shot in the second period against Dallas.
But it wasn't your ordinary miss.
Stalberg's backhander toward a partially open net first hit the right post, then the crossbar, and finally the left post and stayed out.
Stalberg's miss came with the scored tied 2-2 with the Hawks going on to lose to the Stars 4-2 at the United Center.
“I don't think I've ever seen that happen in my life before,” Stalberg said. “Three bars in one shot, that's a first for me at least.
“I made the move I wanted to do and I got it up the way I wanted. I don't know how it could happen, to be honest.”
The Hawks' penalty killers came into the game ranked 25th in the NHL and weren't very good again, allowing the Stars to score three times on the power play.
Mike Ribeiro's second power-play goal with 9:14 to play snapped a 2-2 tie with his centering pass going past goalie Corey Crawford off defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson.
“It's something we've talked about a lot recently and tonight it was a point of emphasis,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said of the penalty killing. “It certainly slowed our team game down.
“We still need better sticks, we still can execute and we still can move more predictably together. That's something we'll continue to reinforce. We have to execute better together.”
The game started badly for the Hawks as Dallas scored 2 power-play goals in the first eight minutes after penalties to Tomas Kopecky and Brian Campbell.
The Hawks were listless early and didn't begin to pick up their game until the second period when all the momentum swung their way after Fernando Pisani and Kopecky scored goals 2:08 apart.
“We had a couple guys going and some guys weren't in the first period,” Jonathan Toews said. “Again, I don't know what to say about that. It's something that keeps coming back in our game.
“You can't keep winning games if you're going to go down a goal or two in the first period. I don't know why we're putting ourselves in that situation.”
It was only 70 seconds after Kopecky's tying goal that Stalberg was hauled down on a breakaway by Stars defenseman Nicklas Grossman.
Patrick Sharp's tripping penalty against Steve Ott at 9:11 of the third period resulted in Ribeiro's game winner — a call Quenneville thought was cheap on the part of referees Kyle Rehman and Eric Furlatt.
“I looked at the replay and at that time of the game, that's two home games in a row you've got to look at it and say, ‘Wow,'” Quenneville said.
The Stars got an empty-net goal from Ott with 1:01 to play after Quenneville pulled Crawford on a power play for a 6-on-4 that didn't work.
Tim Sassone's game tracker
<b>Three stars</b>
<b>1. Mike Ribeiro, Stars: </b>Two power-play goals, including the game-winner in the third period that snapped a 2-2 tie.
<b>2. Loui Eriksson, Stars: </b>Played solid 20 minutes at forward with 2 assists and 3 hits.
<b>3. Jonathan Toews, Hawks:</b> Played a whopping 25 minutes and won 15 of 23 faceoffs.
<b>Playing tough </b>
The Stars played the entire third period with only four defensemen after Matt Niskanen and Karlis Skrastins collided in the warmup prior to the third period. Nuskanen suffered a broken nose, chipped tooth and a seven-stitch cut on his hand while Skrastins appeared to suffer a concussion.