Blackhawks' Hjalmarsson had unfortunate role in Blues goal
ST. LOUIS — Niklas Hjalmarsson has played in more than 700 games in the NHL and he doesn't need more than one hand to count the number of times the puck has bounced off one of his body parts and into the Blackhawks' net.
But that's exactly what happened in the third period of the Winter Classic on Monday when a pass by Vladimir Tarasenko clanked off Hjalmarsson's left skate and slid past Corey Crawford to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead in a game they would win 4-1.
“It wasn't on purpose,” Tarasenko said of trying to score with 7:55 left in the game.
The play that led to the winning goal began when Richard Panik flipped the puck to the middle of the Blackhawks' zone with nobody there to receive the puck. Tarasenko picked it up, passed it to Robby Fabbri, got it back from Fabbri and banked it off Hjalmarsson's skate as he was racing in to the right of Corey Crawford.
“I thought he played it smart. Those kind of plays happen,” Duncan Keith said of Hjalmarsson. “We had full possession in the other end. Overall, we got away from our game and getting pucks in behind their D and keeping it simple.”
While a play like this is rare, it wasn't the first time it's happened to Hjalmarsson.
“I remember getting a puck (early) in the Stanley Cup Finals against Philly in my forehead and (it went) straight into the net,” Hjalmarsson said of a goal that was credited to the Flyers' Ville Leino. “That was a bad one, too. It happens.”
Hjalmarsson did say he thought he could have prevented Tarasenko's goal by angling his skate differently.
Heating up:
Lost in the Blackhawks loss is the fact that Michal Kempny had an extremely strong game. The defenseman not only opened the scoring 62 seconds in, but he also thwarted numerous high-danger scoring chances by the Blues.
Kempny has played in three straight games (scoring in the last two) since being a healthy scratch in nine of the previous 10.
“That's probably the most impressive part — when you've been sitting for more than two or three games it's tough to play right away,” said Niklas Hjalmarsson. “He's been playing unbelievable since he came in and scored two goals in two games. I haven't done that in my career yet.
“That's good for the whole team when we can contribute on the back end. He's been playing really well.”
Slap shots:
Home teams are now 3-4-2 in the Winter Classic. … The NHL's 20 outdoor games have a combined attendance of 1,100,851. That's an average of 55,043. … Coming into the Winter Classic, the Hawks were 9 of 32 on the power play in their past 12 games. Against St. Louis, though, they went 0-for-3. … Ryan Hartman was whistled for two penalties Monday. He had just 2 penalty minutes in his first 24 games, but has had 12 in his last 11.