Emery steals the show for Hawks

It was the very definition of a goalie win. With Ray Emery making 42 saves in regulation and 45 through overtime, the Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night.

It didn’t look good for Emery and the Hawks when Jay Bouwmeester gave the Flames a 2-1 lead with 35 seconds to play, but Marian Hossa tied it on his sixth goal with three seconds left with Emery pulled for a sixth attacker.

“Ray played unbelievable,” Hossa said. “Calgary outshot us pretty badly, but Ray kept us in there.”

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville credited Emery with stealing 2 points for the Hawks.

“That was criminal,” Quenneville said. “You’ve got to call the cops after that performance. We stole 2 points. He was spectacular. I’ve never ever been outchanced and outplayed like that in my life. It was a special performance. And it continued on in the shootout.”

The Hawks played without Dave Bolland, whose right leg injury looked a lot worse than it turned out to be.

Bolland won’t miss too much time with an injury Hawks coach Joel Quenneville described as day to day.

“We’ll see how he’s progressing on this trip,” Quenneville told reporters before the game. “He’s going to be all right. You’re always concerned about the worst, but he’s not doing too badly today.

“We’ve got enough guys for tonight, but we could bring somebody into San Jose.”

Emery was making only his second start of the season and was sensational.

Patrick Kane had opened the scoring early in the third period and scored the only goal on the shootout.

Emery stopped Alex Tanguay, Jiri Hudler and Roman Cervenka in the shootout for the win.

The Hawks had to kill a penalty to Brandon Saad in overtime and did so in dramatic fashion led by Emery, who was great in the final frantic seconds.

Bolland, who will go with the team to San Jose for Tuesday’s game, was hurt two minutes into the third period Friday against Vancouver when he was chopped on the leg by the stick of Jannik Hansen.

With Bolland out, Andrew Shaw moved up and centered the second line between Kane and Patrick Sharp against the Flames.

Marcus Kruger took over center on the third line between Viktor Stalberg and Bryan Bickell.

The Hawks were coming off back-to-back shootout losses at Minnesota and Vancouver.

“It would have been nice to get those points because we’re going to probably need them down the stretch, but at the same time we’ll take the points we did get,” Kane said.

“We’re happy,” Quenneville said. “We’re getting into some overtime games now. The last couple games we’ve had tough endings, but at the same time you get points and you’re putting yourself in a good spot.”

Emery and Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff dominated the first two periods with their strong play.

Kiprusoff first stopped Hossa on a clean breakaway early in the second period then moments later Emery turned away Jarome Iginla on a breakaway.

Emery later stopped Iginla again on a clean scoring chance in tight and in the third period frustrated Curtis Glencross at least three times.