Hawks feeling good as they hit the road for circus trip
Now that's a homestand.
The Blackhawks made it 4-for-4 for the week at home and stretched their United Center winning streak to seven games Sunday night with a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks in overtime.
Brent Seabrook's goal 41 seconds into OT, the result of great forechecking work by Jonathan Toews and Troy Brouwer, will send the Hawks out on a high for their six-game road trip that begins Thursday in Calgary.
"This was a huge win for us," said Seabrook, who has 2 goals this season, both overtime winners. "This was a big test against a good team knowing we have a tough road ahead of us."
The Sharks have the best record in the NHL, but the Hawks are starting to put it all together and now sit at 12-5-2.
San Jose took a 3-1 lead early in the second period, but the Hawks battled back for a 3-3 tie going to the third on goals by Patrick Kane and John Madden.
"We knew we would have our hands full coming in here," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "Obviously it's a tremendous hockey club, the Blackhawks, and having played the night before in a pretty physical game (at St. Louis), we were a little concerned about the gas tanks and how much juice we'd have in our legs.
"We were able to take the game over for a little while, but we just didn't have enough in the end."
Seabrook's winner came when he pinched in from the right side and took a sweet feed from Toews to beat goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
"I was thinking of taking it to the net, which would have been much tougher, but he yelled for it and was wide open in the slot," Toews said.
"Brouwer or Toews got there first and kind of pushed guys out of the way," Seabrook said. "They did all the work on it, and it was a great pass."
After a 1-1 first period in which Brent Sopel and Dany Heatley traded goals, a unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty on Ben Eager led to Jason Demers' power-play goal at 1:14 on a shot that appeared to surprise goalie Cristobal Huet.
Patrick Marleau made it a 2-goal lead for the Sharks 45 seconds later when he banged home his own rebound.
The Hawks woke up a few minutes later and controlled most of the second period, outshooting the Sharks 13-8.
Kane capped a flurry at 7:54 of the second with his seventh goal of the season to extend his points scoring streak to seven games. Madden's third goal at 18:41 on a rebound brought the Hawks even again.
"We wanted to have a good start, and we did," Seabrook said. "Things kind of got away from us early in the second period, but we were able to get it back."
The Hawks are ready for the road after banking the 8 points from the last four home games. They are a league-best 10-2-1 at the UC.
"We're certainly very happy with the four games here at home and have a little momentum to get excited about this road trip," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I liked the way we played in all the games, especially being down 3-1 and not a lot happening. That was a good response there.
"Down 2 goals against a top team like that, you're not very often going to come back and get 2 (points)."
<p class="factboxheadblack">Tim Sassone's game tracker</p> <p class="breakhead">Three stars </p> <p class="News"><b>1. Brent Seabrook, Hawks:</b> Big effort from the defenseman, with the game-winning goal in overtime and 2 blocked shots.</p> <p class="News"><b>2. Jonathan Toews, Hawks:</b> Two huge assists, including the setup of Seabrook's winner, and played almost 23 minutes.</p> <p class="News"><b>3. John Madden, Hawks:</b> Scored a key second-period goal when he seemed to be everywhere and won all 9 of his faceoffs.</p> <p class="News"><b>Key stat:</b> The Sharks came in ranked No. 1 in the NHL at winning faceoffs, but the No. 2-ranked Hawks won 52 percent of the draws, with John Madden going 9-0.</p>