Hawks overcome rare goal takeaway

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Goals are wiped out all the time in the NHL. But rarely does one come off the scoreboard after several minutes have passed, which is what happened to the Blackhawks on Saturday at HP Pavilion.

The Hawks lost a goal by Dave Bolland and what would have been a 2-0 lead when officials wiped it out because of a high-sticking penalty against Kris Versteeg that happened minutes earlier.

Because neither referee saw the penalty and one linesman did, the linesman needed to wait for a whistle to alert the referees. That whistle didn't occur until the goal.

Hawks general manager Dale Tallon spent the rest of the period on the telephone to with league headquarters getting an explanation.

Assistant GM Rick Dudley said he never saw a goal come down in that manner. Senior adviser Scotty Bowman said it's a rule that needs to be changed.

The Hawks could have been demoralized to lose the goal and all that momentum, but they regrouped after San Jose scored on the ensuing power play to make it 1-1 and ultimately beat the Sharks 4-2.

"For most teams it could be discouraging to have a goal taken back on you, but we kept playing the way we know we can and knew the goals would keep coming," Jonathan Toews said. "We knew that wasn't going to make the difference and stop us from coming out the building with 2 points."

To make the play even more maddening to the Hawks, replays showed it was Patrick Kane who committed the high stick and not Versteeg, who is one of the team's best penalty killers.

Break time: After a day off in Las Vegas on Sunday, the Hawks will practice there today at a rink at the Orleans Hotel before heading to Edmonton for the game on Tuesday.

"We had a couple days off between games and we felt it would be fun to get away and be together," coach Joel Quenneville said.

Quenneville changed the itinerary rather than spend two off-days in San Jose.

Goal-getter: With 2 goals on Saturday, Jonathan Toews has 16 to pull within 1 of Patrick Kane.

Kane has just 1 goal in his last 15 games. Patrick Sharp still leads the team with 22 goals.

Tip-ins: The Hawks won only 33 percent of their faceoffs against the Sharks, with Dave Bolland, Kris Versteeg and Colin Faser a combined 4-for-24, ... Brent Seabrook was credited with 5 blocked shots. ... This might be hometown stat keeping, but the Shark were credited with 40 hits to the Hawks' 21.