Hawks savor beating the best -- and look to be getting that swagger back
SAN JOSE, Calif. - As far as wins go, it was the biggest one of the season for the Blackhawks.
Not only did the Hawks beat the NHL's best team in its own building Saturday night, they took it to the San Jose Sharks while looking like the club that won nine games in a row in December.
"Going into the all-star break, we weren't playing the way we were so I think this kind of symbolizes us coming back together as a team and playing the way we know we can," captain Jonathan Toews said. "We've got a good feeling going again."
The Hawks did what they do best in the 4-2 victory at HP Pavilion. They flashed their speed and skill, outworked the bigger Sharks and got more four-star goaltending from Nikolai Khabibulin.
It was a game the Hawks wanted badly after 6 losses in six tries in previous games against San Jose and Detroit, and the emotion and intensity were there from start to finish.
"It was a huge game and I liked the way we played," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had a lot of enthusiasm and we had a lot of puck support and we won a lot of puck battles. We did some good things, and this is not an easy place to come play."
The Hawks joined Calgary as the only teams to beat the Sharks on home ice in regulation.
"They were faster than we were," San Jose coach Todd McClellan said. "I thought we were second to a lot of pucks. We spent any type of energy that we had defending, so when we were on offense we were tired and looking for a change."
Toews scored 2 goals, but the biggest goal belonged to Kris Versteeg short-handed at 7:56 of the second period to snap a 1-1 tie.
Dave Bolland made a great individual play, passing to Versteeg while falling after being taken down by Christian Ehrhoff.
Versteeg's goal restored the momentum the Hawks had lost in the first period when they had a goal taken off the scoreboard after several minutes that would have made it 2-0.
Bolland's goal at 10:59 was erased minutes after he scored when the referees enforced a rarely used rule that lets linesmen report stick penalties to the refs at the next stoppage of play.
In this case, the next stop of the clock was on Bolland's goal. So when Versteeg was sent off with a double-minor penalty for high-sticking, the goal was nullified and the Hawks' lead was back to 1-0.
"I thought that was a tough call, probably the right call, but at the same time a tough call for us," Duncan Keith said. "But I thought what was great about our team was we didn't let that affect us."
The Sharks tied it on the ensuing power play, but the Hawks kept their cool and eventually took the game back over.
"We hung with it," Quenneville said. "Our group was excited about the game and I think we really competed for each other and all aspects of our game was rock solid. It certainly was a very good sign in what we were looking for."