Blackhawks get a little help from Iginla
The joke going around the press box during the second intermission was that Jarome Iginla either scored his first goal for the Blackhawks or his last one for the Calgary Flames.
It was Iginla who deflected a shot by Brent Seabrook over goalie Miikka Kiprusoff in the second period that added to the Hawks' lead in a game they went on to win 2-0.
Iginla may or may not be coming to the Hawks before the April 3 trade deadline — most likely not — but he is going somewhere, according to those closest to the Flames.
“The rumors and stuff will work itself out in the next five or six days,” Iginla said after the game. “We've been dealing with it now for a few weeks.
“It's part of hockey. We've made it this far in the year as far as speculation. The good thing is we're playing all the time so you just focus on the games. There's speculation about a lot of us. As a group we try not to add to all the talk.”
While defensemen Nick Leddy and Seabrook had the Hawks' goals and Ray Emery posted his first shutout of the season and his first since 2010 against Calgary when he was with Philadelphia, it was Patrick Kane who was the best player on the ice.
“He had a special game,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Kaner did have the puck a lot tonight. He was very much a threat and dangerous.”
Kane's 2 assists stretched his point streak to seven games, during which he has 5 goals and 9 assists.
“I felt pretty good tonight,” he said. “I probably should have shot a little more; I had some chances, but sometimes you're trying to create a couple more plays. Anytime you have the puck a lot it's a fun game, and that's what I want to do.”
Leddy's fifth goal of the season at 7:09 of the first period came when he sneaked a shot through the legs of Kiprusoff. The puck actually went into the net off Kiprusoff's right pad and through his legs.
“I was a little surprised,” Leddy said. “I was just trying to put it on net and it ended up going in.”
Kiprusoff made 33 saves compared to just 16 for Emery, who ran his record to 12-0-0.
“That's a nice number; it's a great stat,” Quenneville said. “I thought he had a great game tonight. He's had two remarkable games against these guys.”
Emery called it a great team defensive effort.
“We got a lead early on and continued to apply pressure,” Emery said. “We really didn't give them a lot. It was a great night defensively.”
Every time Emery wins he adds to his NHL record for best start by a goaltender.
“All the guys in here feel confident with either guy in the net,” Kane said.
Seabrook's sixth goal, off Iginla's stick came at 17:48 of the second period, was another one set up by Kane's dangling with the puck.
The win snapped the Hawks' two-game losing streak and showed they remember how to protect a third-period lead.
“We've been doing it all year,” Kane said. “We had a couple slip-ups in the past couple games, but I think if you look at the games we won before were 1-goal games.
“It's something we know we can do. We've just got to be confident and get the job done.”
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