Hawks pound Bruins after falling behind 2-0
For a team that has rallied from a 5-0 deficit this season to win, falling behind the Boston Bruins by 2 goals eight minutes into Thursday's game at TD Garden was no sweat for the Blackhawks.
Led by Duncan Keith's 2 goals and a big night from the fourth line, the Hawks rallied to beat the Bruins 5-2 for their fifth straight win and eighth in the last nine games.
It was all Hawks after Keith's rocket of a slap shot past Bruins goalie Tim Thomas at 12:49 of the first period made it 2-1.
The goal came moments after Patrick Sharp knocked Boston's 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara on his rear end with a check.
"I thought the last 10 minutes of the first period we got ourselves back into it," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I thought we played real solid the last 50 minutes of the game and got contributions across the board again."
The Hawks got out of the first period tied 2-2 when Tomas Kopecky scored 1:56 before intermission with assists from Colin Fraser and Ben Eager, his linemates on the fourth line.
The Hawks took the lead for the first time 1:42 into the second period on Andrew Ladd's rebound goal that came seconds after a power play expired.
Keith's second goal came at 10:13 of the second period on a long wrist shot from near the blue line set up by Eager and Fraser.
The fourth line of Fraser, Eager and Kopecky has combined for 5 goals and 10 assists over the last six games.
"It seems like the last five to 10 games we've found some chemistry and we're getting results," Fraser told Comcast SportsNet following Thursday's win.
The Hawks chased Thomas after Keith's second goal.
"They pretty much did whatever they wanted to," Thomas said.
Hawks goalie Antti Niemi was solid again in a 19-save performance that ran his record to 11-2-1. It was another road win in a tough building for Niemi, who now has posted victories at Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Boston.
Keith's 3 points gave him 40 for the season, putting him 1 behind Washington's Mike Green for the most among defensemen. Keith now is only 4 points shy of his career high set last season with 38 games still to play.
Keith's first goal couldn't have come at a better time after the Hawks got down by 2 quickly.
"I think everyone was just (angry), basically, getting down 2-0," Hawks dfeenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson said.
"You could tell on the bench we still had a lot of confidence," Quenneville said. "We had a lot of time to go and we certainly were on the receiving end watching it to begin with. But we can score goals and if we can make a team play in their own end we can have some success and gain momentum in the game."
The Hawks caught a break in the first minute of the game when Bruins center Marc Savard hurt his right knee after getting tangled up with Jonathan Toews along the board and didn't return.
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<li><a href="/story/?id=349291">Season's biggest test is here<span class="date"> [1/07/10]</span></a></li>
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