Costly miss helps Ducks blank Blackhawks
ANAHEIM, Calif - Who knew that when Dave Bolland missed an open net early in the second period Friday afternoon at the Honda Center that it would come back to haunt the Blackhawks.
But it did.
On a day when scoring chances were at a premium, Bolland's flub was as close as the Hawks came to scoring in a 1-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
The Hawks were on a power play when Martin Havlat's pass to a wide-open Bolland in the slot with goalie Jonas Hiller down and out fluttered a bit. Bolland didn't get great wood on it and fired wide left.
"I still should have had it," Bolland said. "There's no excuses for that one. It should have been in the back of the net."
Bolland looked at his stick funny after the miss.
"I had a few choice words for it," Bolland said.
Ryan Getzlaf's goal off a Colin Fraser turnover at 15:19 of the second period was the difference.
Hawks goalie Cristobal Huet, who played well in his first start since Nov. 16, couldn't slide to his right in time to stop Getzlaf's second whack at the puck.
The Hawks outshot the Ducks 26-21 but were shut out for the first time.
"It's always tough to score goals against good players like (Chris) Pronger and (Scott) Niedermayer," Patrick Kane said of the Ducks' two towers of power on defense. "We had our chances and we just didn't bury them."
It was a sleepy day-after-Thanksgiving game that took only 2 hours, 17 minutes. There was only 1 goal scored and 3 minor penalties called.
"It was weird game," Kane said. "There wasn't much going on. They got that goal midway through the second and we started pressing a little bit. And when you start pressing, chances don't really come."
The Hawks did have one more great chance in the third period after Brian Campbell spun away from a defender and spotted Patrick Sharp flying down the left side, but Sharp's backhander with part of the net open sailed wide.
"Some nights are crisper and some nights it's not," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "When it's tight around the rink we have to be comfortable playing that kind of game. I thought we did a decent job. Those are the games we have to be comfortable winning as we progress through the season because that's what it's all about."
Quenneville thought the game might have boiled down to Bolland's miss.
"Whoever scored first tonight, I liked their chances," Quenneville said.
The Hawks still can finish a great road trip with a win today in Los Angeles. They're 3-1-1 after losing for only the fifth time all season in regulation.
"You give up 1 on the road and you expect something to happen where we get some production somewhere," Quenneville said. "I don't think you should be satisfied knowing that you think you played all right and you lost. Let's get excited again."