Blackhawks pull away to beat FlamesHawks stay hot on the road, lick Flames

CALGARY, Alberta - Flames coach Mike Keenan was trying to explain his team's 0-3 record against the Blackhawks following Thursday's morning skate.

"Twice they were sitting waiting with us playing back-to-back on the road," Keenan said. "When we played here they sitting waiting for us for two days while we were coming off a long road trip.

"This is probably the most level playing field we've had."

The Flames had no excuses Thursday night as the Hawks made it a four-game sweep of the season series with a 5-2 win at the Saddledome.

"I think just like (Tuesday) night in Edmonton, we just outworked this team," said Adam Burish, whose second-period goal snapped a 2-2 tie. "It's not like we outskilled them or we did anything special; we just outworked them."

Andrew Ladd had a goal and 2 assists and Matt Walker chipped in 3 assists as the Hawks won their third straight to go 4-1 on an eight-game road trip that now can end no worse than .500. It also gave the Hawks a 9-point lead over Anaheim for fourth place in the Western Conference.

"There's a lot of hockey left here and we shouldn't be satisfied with anything," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

It was 2-2 after the first period with the Hawks twice giving back leads after goals from Dave Bolland and Ladd. It was Ladd's first goal in 14 games.

The Hawks played a terrific second period despite being short-handed for eight minutes and came out with a 3-2 lead on Burish's tip-in of a Walker shot at 11:28.

The Hawks' penalty killers were huge in the middle period on a pair of minors to Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane's double minor for high sticking.

"Eight minutes short and we ended up winning the period," Quenneville said. "I think that was the turning point. Some real big kills, especially the four minutes."

Improving penalty killing had helped the Hawks become one of the NHL's better road teams at 15-9-3.

"It always important on the road," said Colin Fraser. "If they can go scoreless on the power play, our power play is good enough to get one."

Fraser and Troy Brouwer added third-period goals. Brouwer's was short-handed into an empty net after Keenan pulled goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

Nikolai Khabibulin made 29 saves to go 22-5 lifetime against the Flames, who he also beat four times in the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals with Tampa Bay.

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