Pressure pays off for Hawks against Tampa Bay

TAMPA, Fla. - There's no doubt the Blackhawks will miss Patrick Sharp for the next few weeks, but his loss might not sting as much if Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Martin Havlat keep playing like they did Tuesday night.

The Hawks' three big guns combined for 3 goals and 5 assists in a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was a game the Hawks dominated, with a 49-23 edge in shots, yet had to rally to win with 4 straight goals, including 3 in the third period.

"We stuck with it, kept driving the net and kept getting scoring chances," said Toews, who had 2 goals and an assist for his second straight 3-point game.

Kane had a goal and 2 assists, scoring for the first time in nine games and for just the second time in the last 22. His goal on a power-play at 1:46 of the third period made it 3-3.

Dave Bolland got what proved to be the winning goal with 7:14 to play on a feed from Havlat, who beat several Lightning defenders along the boards behind the net to make the feed. Havlat's 2 assists gave him 5 points in the last two games.

Kane acted as if the weight of the world finally was lifted from his shoulders when he beat goalie Karri Ramo with a wicked wrist shot under the crossbar from between the circles.

"It's definitely nice to score a goal, and you could see from my reaction that I was pretty happy," Kane said. "It's nice to contribute. With the absence of Sharpie, obviously some players had to step up, and we got contributions from a lot of players tonight."

It was near total domination in the first period for the Hawks, who outshot the Lightning 19-3 but came out with just a 1-1 tie.

After Duncan Keith's goal at 11:53 on a pretty pass from Havlat, the Lightning's Steven Stamkos answered at 12:58 on a shot that saw Cristobal Huet arrive late to the right post.

Stamkos, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft, got 2 power-play goals 70 seconds apart in the second period to briefly change the momentum. The goals came with Craig Adams serving a double-minor penalty for high-sticking.

The Hawks were lucky to get within 3-2 before the second period ended on Toews' late power-play goal from behind the net that went in off the skate of defenseman Lukas Krajicek.

"Obviously a huge goal at the end of the second that ignited us," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

Ramo was outstanding for the Lightning, but his teammates were horrible defensively in front of him.

"When it's 3-1 you're thinking it's going to be one of those games they can sneak out with," Kane said. "We pretty much dominated the whole game."

"You try to hold the fort," said Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet. "To beat a team like that you have to play really disciplined and smart. You can't give them the freebies. I think we took a couple penalties that were kind of stupid."

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