Hawks again douse Flames, scoring 5 goals in 2nd period

Go ahead and say it: The Blackhawks own the Calgary Flames.

The Hawks continued their dominance of the Flames on Thursday night with a 7-1 victory at the Pengrowth Saddledome in the opener of their six-game road trip.

Counting the playoffs last spring, the Hawks have won 10 of the last 12 games against the Flames, who last month blew a 5-0 lead in losing 6-5 at the United Center.

In winning their fifth straight game, the Hawks blew it open with a 5-goal second period - 3 of them coming on the power play. The Hawks had 4 power-play goals for the night.

It couldn't have been a better start to what Hawks coach Joel Quenneville called a key road trip.

"It's games against top opponents in our conference and top opponents in our league," Quenneville said. "You find out how we can play in a hostile environment and at the end of it we'll get a better read on our team.

"We want to make sure we get something out of every game, which would be a realistic achievement."

The Hawks (13-5-2) took a 1-0 lead into the second period on Troy Brouwer's power-play goal off a Duncan Keith rebound.

After Olli Jokinin's power-play goal 14 seconds into the second period tied it, the Hawks took control thanks to a game-changing hit by defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson.

Hjalmarsson rocked Rene Bourque along the boards, giving the momentum back to the Hawks.

Calgary's Nigel Dawes took exception to Hjalmarsson's clean hit and drew a penalty for roughing, which the Hawks turned into Kris Versteeg's power-play goal at 2:01 on a tip-in of a Brent Seabrook shot.

Dustin's Byfuglien's goal made it 3-1 and then the floodgates opened.

Keith sent Andrew Ladd in on a breakaway for a goal at 12:51.

The Hawks got a goal from Patrick Kane on his 21st birthday during a two-man advantage at 18:46 to make it 5-1. Moments later on the same power play, Versteeg finished a sweet passing play with Kane and Keith for his second goal of the night with 32 seconds left in the period.

The goal on the 5-on-3 was the first of the season for the Hawks after five failures in the first 19 games.

Overshadowed by the Hawks' biggest offensive outburst of the season was the play of goalie Cristobal Huet.

Huet was big in the first period en route to his fifth straight win and eighth in his last 10 starts.

"It was nice to see the guys score 7 goals," Huet said.

Thirteen Hawks registered points led by Keith's 3 assists. Brian Campbell, Patrick Sharp and Cam Barker each had 2 assists. Ben Eager scored his first goal of the season.

<p class="factboxheadblack">Tim Sassone's game tracker</p> <p class="News">Blackhawks 7, Flames 1</p> <p class="leadin">Three stars:</p> <p class="News">1. Duncan Keith, Hawks: Three assists and an all-around dominant performance at both ends.</p> <p class="News">2. Kris Versteeg, Hawks: Scored 2 of the Hawks' 4 power-play goals in his return from an upper-body injury.</p> <p class="News">3. Cristobal Huet, Hawks: Goalie held the fort early until the Hawks exploded offensively.</p> <p class="News"><b>Key stat:</b> The Hawks are 6-0 against Calgary over the last two regular seasons.</p> <p class="News"><b>It takes two:</b> Kris Versteeg's 2 goals marked the first multi-goal game for a Hawks player this season. The Hawks were the only team in the NHL without a multi-goal game by a player before Thursday.</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=338459">Quenneville credits players for line changes<span class="date"> [11/19/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>