Blackhawks put 50 shots on goal, lose 2-1 in OT
Sure, it might be 122 degrees in Arizona, but it's a dry heat.
Sure, the Blackhawks peppered Jonas Hiller with 50 shots Wednesday night at the United Center, but it was quantity over quality — rarely did the Calgary goalie have to make any out-of-the ordinary saves.
“Our best shots never even got to the net,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We probably had six or seven A-plus chances that we didn't even get a shot on net. We were looking for a better play.”
In other words, the Hawks had every right to make this one a romp, especially in a first period where they outshot Calgary 18-2, but they often went for the fancy play instead of just throwing the puck on net.
In the end it cost them big time in a more than surprising 2-1 overtime loss to the scrappy Flames.
“We had some pretty plays, but we didn't finish them,” Marian Hossa said. “In some parts of the game I think we tried to get too cute with the puck.
“We thought it was going to be easy, but (Calgary) hung in there in OT and won it.”
And without a doubt much of the credit goes to Hiller, who turned away 49 of 50 shots — never an easy task.
“He was excellent from the outset and looked very composed and patient,” Quenneville said.
But while Hiller gets some credit, a lot of the blame goes to the fact that the Hawks went 0-for-6 on the power play until late in the third period when Andrew Shaw deflected Patrick Sharp's blast from the blue line past Hiller to improve to 1-for-7 on the night.
And, more important, tie the game.
Asked what his guys did differently on that final power play, Quenneville offered a terse response: “Shoot.”
“I thought we had good quality, but I also thought we were making too many pretty plays around the net instead of shooting the puck,” Shaw said. “Hiller played great, you can't take that away from him, but we've got to find a way to win those 1-goal games.”
Despite facing only 18 shots, Hawks goalie Corey Crawford made a handful of spectacular saves to keep this one a game, but in the end his teammates just couldn't penetrate Hiller's force field.
“It's a tough loss, but you learn from it,” Crawford said. “We played really well. We'll shake off the loss and move on.”
Move on very comfortable in the knowledge that the next time they put 50 shots on net there's very little chance it will result in just 1 measly goal.
“I didn't mind the way we played,” Quenneville said. “We should find a way to have a little more finish than we did tonight, but you get those quantity or quality chances and usually we'll get more than 1.”
mspellman@dailyherald.com