Banner Hawks night ends in loss
The ceremony to raise the Stanley Cup banner was spectacular.
The rest of the evening was not so great for the Blackhawks on Saturday night.
For the second straight game to start the season the Hawks put themselves in a position to win, only to come up short again, this time losing to the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 at an emotionally charged United Center.
Hawks goalie Marty Turco had a tough night in his home debut and admitted so after allowing 2 goals he considered soft.
“I thought 2 (goals) should have been enough (to win), Turco said. “It was a couple mistakes on my part that cost us the game.
“It was an amazing memorable night to say the least for these fans, what they went through last year on that Cup run. As the game went on you look back now and you had a chance to win the way the guys played, so it's disappointing not to give the fans what they deserved, especially on a special night like this.
Valtteri Filppula's tiebreaking goal on a power play at 6:01 of the third period wasn't pretty.
With Filppula flying down the left side, Hawks defenseman John Scott fell down. Filppula half-fanned on a shot that slid slowly through Turco's legs as Niklas Hjalmarsson slid past the goaltender.
“It was kind of a broken play and as he was coming in he did whiff on it, Turco said. “Our defenseman slid and I made the assumption it was going to get stuck underneath him. That's my mistake and you have to live with it.
Scott said he simply lost his balance.
“I just fell, Scott said. “It was kind of a 1-on-1 entering the zone and I just lost my footing and bailed and he went in and scored. That's what happens when you make a mistake against a good team.
The Hawks (0-1-1) had two chances on the power play after falling behind 3-2 but failed to capitalize and were 1-for-5 on the night.
“We need to score on one of those and we didn't do it, Duncan Keith said.
The Hawks' power play has been so-so in their first two games.
“Our entry tonight was giving us problems, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We didn't sustain enough pucks to get some offensive zone time. I thought it was good in Colorado, but I can't say that tonight.
After a rousing pregame ceremony to raise the 2010 Stanley Cup banner to the rafters, the Hawks came out a bit flat.
The Red Wings took a 1-0 lead at 12:59 when Filppula got behind defenseman Nick Boynton to tap home a perfect pass from Johan Franzen.
“We struggled a little bit in the first period, but I think we held them to minimal chances the whole game, Scott said.
The Hawks were better as the first period progressed and got a huge power-play goal from Brent Seabrook with three seconds left before intermission. Marian Hossa spotted Seabrook all alone cruising the slot for the quick snap shot over goalie Chris Osgood.
The two teams traded goals early in the second period.
Todd Bertuzzi put Detroit ahead at 1:15 when his tuck shot from right of the net caught Turco arriving late to the post.
The Detroit lead lasted only 34 seconds before Bryan Bickell tied it with his second goal in as many games. Bickell took a pass from Dave Bolland between the circles and snapped a shot past Osgood that appeared to change direction off the leg of Bertuzzi.
Quenneville used Bolland between Bickell and Patrick Kane because of an injury to Patrick Sharp, who was a late scratch because of an upper-body injury, apparently suffered Thursday at Colorado.
Center Brandon Pirri was recalled from Rockford to replace Sharp and centered a line for Fernando Pisani and Troy Brouwer. Pirri played nine minutes and was minus-1.
Quenneville believes Sharp will be able to play Monday at Buffalo.
“We don't think it's anything serious and hopefully he's going Monday, Quenneville said.