Hawks happy to kill 6-minute penalty for Eager

The Blackhawks are a team in every sense of the word, and they showed why Wednesday night at the United Center.

After Duncan Keith was knocked woozy - and out of the game - by a questionable head shot from Buffalo's Drew Stafford midway through the second period with the Hawks leading 3-1, Ben Eager took off after the Sabres' winger.

Eager earned 3 penalties, and the respect of his teammates, although he did put the Hawks short-handed for six full minutes.

But good teams kill what they consider good penalties, which is what the Hawks did. They gave the Buffalo power play nothing, allowing just 1 shot during the six-minute kill, and that wasn't until the fifth minute.

Another huge crowd of more than 21,000 roared after the kill, and the Hawks rode the wave of emotion to finish off the Sabres 4-1 for their second straight victory.

"(Eager) stuck up for a teammate, and that's the kind of penalty we really want to make sure we kill," goalie Cristobal Huet said.

"I'd kill those off all day," Adam Burish said. "One of our best defensemen, somebody takes a hit at him that could seriously hurt him, you need to hold him accountable, and Benny did that.

"That's part of the game, sticking up for each other. I don't think Stafford was too effective after that. I think he knew guys kind of had him and every time he skated by the bench guys reminded him of it. That's part of being team tough."

Eager called it a "dirty" hit by Stafford that left Keith struggling to get to the bench.

"It's a dirty hit regardless if it's a shoulder - it's shoulder right to head and it's defenseless," Eager said. "That guy probably has two hits all year. That team has been through it before and they should know better.

"I just thought it was a dirty play. I'm sure nothing will come of it because it was a skilled guy that hit him, but we'll see what they do."

Keith was talking to teammates after the game and "seemed fine," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said, but more will be known of his condition today.

Quenneville didn't think it was a clean hit either.

"I didn't like it," he snapped. "I'll leave it at that."

Stafford didn't think he did anything wrong.

"I hope he's OK, but you've got to keep your head up if you're going to make a play like that," Stafford said.

The Hawks rallied from an early 1-0 deficit to run their United Center winning streak to eight games and close the first half of the season at 24-10-7, good for 55 points and fourth place in the Western Conference.

The Hawks came out of the first period ahead 2-1 on late goals by Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews.

Martin Havlat's goal early in the second period made it 3-1. James Wisniewski got his first goal of the season early in the third period.

But most of the talk after the game was Stafford's hit and the six-minute kill.

"I just took it two minutes at a time," Huet said. "That was huge and gave us more momentum going into the third period."

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