Wild Weekend Proves Profitable For Blackhawks

Troy Brouwer's 2 goals within 40 seconds of each other lead the Hawks to a big win Sunday night.

 With the entire city of Chicago focused on their beloved Bears as they make their push through the NFC playoffs, the Blackhawks took the ice for a crucial Home and Home against Central Division foe Nashville.

On Saturday night, the Hawks traveled to Nashville and after 2 periods, it seemed as if the Hawks were on their way to a big road win with goals from both Kopecky and Stalberg giving them a 2-0 lead.  In the 3rd however, the Hawks once again allowed their opponents to come back.  Jerred Smithson and Shea Weber scored within 3 minutes of each other to tie the game and force the game into OT.

OT came and went with a couple missed opportunities by Chicago including a Patrick Sharp breakaway which was turned aside by Rinne.  It was now down to a shootout.  Pekka Rinne showed why he is one of the best young goalies in the NHL as he shutout the Hawks in OT and sent Chicago home with their tails between their legs.

As Sunday night came around, the Blackhawks, still angered by their embarrasing defeat in Nashville the night before, took the ice to an empowered crowd pumped up over the Bears advancing to the NFC Championship earlier in the day.  These fans were ready for their other winter warriors to dominate and take home a win. 

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks seemed to still be on a hangover from the night before.  The Hawks looked sluggish in the 1st period (again), and Nashville seemed determine to take another 2 points from their division rival.  Martin Erat's goal just 2 minutes into the game seemed to quiet the crowd and put Nashville in the drivers seat.  The Blackhawks however weren't ready to give up, and Dave Bolland's goal right around the 6:00 mark brought the Hawks back to even ground. JP Dumont netted a late goal to crush the momentum, and the 1st period finally came to an end.

The 2nd Period was played pretty tight, but Dave Bolland was able to strike again to tie the game going into the 3rd.

With their 3rd period disaster fresh in their minds from the night before, Sunday night seemed to be going the same direction as JP Dumont netted his 2nd goal of the night just 4 minutes in.  It looked pretty bleek that Chicago could overcome a deficit for the third time in the same game, but boy was I wrong.  The Blackhawks quickly woke up and attacked Nashville with a vengeance...

Troy Brouwer, getting valuable PP minutes, quickly scored 2 goals in :40 seconds to turn the tables on the visitors.  The Blackhawks never looked back after that...Bryan Bickell and Jonathan Toews also tallied goals in the 3rd and turned the game into a blowout.

With a recent flurry of injuries hitting Central Division leaders Detroit, now is the time the Hawks need to make a move in the standings.  Nashville came into the weekend 1 point ahead of the Hawks, and with the Hawks grabbing 3 out of 4 possible points, they pushed themselves into a tie with the Preds with 2 games in hand.

The Hawks will have another great opportunity to gain valuable division points in their next game which takes place next Saturday vs. Detroit.

Hawks Continue Hot Streak, Dismantle Avalanche

Heading into Wednesday night's game vs. Western Conference foe Colorado, the Blackhawks were riding a two game win streak over NHL bottom feeders Ottawa and New York Islanders.  Fans weren't sure if the Hawks were finally catching fire and playing like they should have been all year, or if they were just taking advantage of weaker talent.  The game vs. Colorado surely settled that debate in some minds.

The Blackhawks came out strong and really put Colorado's back to the wall and held them there for pretty much the entire game.  Troy Brouwer and Dave Bolland connected on back to back goals just :40 apart in the 7th minute, getting the Hawks the lead early and boosting their confidence.  Pisani and Skille added tallies later, and Corey Crawford saved all 24 of the shots Colorado generated to secure the win.  For Crawford, he has clearly won the starting goaltender spot, and as of late, his play has been excellent.

While all may seem great on paper, one aspect the Blackhawks continue to struggle with is their discipline.  The Hawks committed another 4 penalties tonight, including Tomas Kopecky who seems to get more penalty minutes than playing minutes.  While the penalties continue to occur, tremendous stress is out on the Hawks PK which has consistently shown to be ineffective at times.  Thankfully, they decided to show up tonight and they killed off all 4 penalties.

The Blackhawks will now be off until Saturday when they take on division rival Nashville.
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Icehogs D provides plenty of scoring

The Rocford Icehogs took on the Grand Rapids Griffins on Kyle Beach Bobblhead Night, in a game that would send Icehog fans home happy.

The Icehogs would open the scoring at 4:35 of the 1st period when Ivan Vishnevskiy scored his 4th goal of the year. Assists on Vishnevskiy's goal went to Ben Smith, and Evan Brophey. A little over a minute later Vishevskiy would strike again, this time he scored his 5th goal of the year on the Powerplay. Smith again tallied an assist on the goal. Rockford would add another goal before the end of the period when Shawn Lalonde scored his 5th goal of the year, Beach and Brian Connelly chipped in on the assists.

34 seconds into the period Connelly wanted to add his own goal from the blue line. The goal was Connelly's 4th of the year, with Smith getting his 3rd assist on the night, along with Brophey getting his 2nd assist of the night. 3 minutes later Jeff Taffe tallied his 10th goal for the Icehogs on a beautiful pass from Ryan Potulny, with Mathis Olimb getting the secondary assist.

To top the night off Beach added a goal to go with his assist on his own Bobblehead night. The goal is Beach's 7th on the year for the Icehogs, assists went to Peter LeBlanc, and Garnet Exelby. Alec Richards finished the night with 22 saves, the win, and a shut out. The win puts the young Icehogs team 1 game over .500, but are still in 8th place in the AHL's West Division.

Hawks Overcome Another Slow Start To Dethrone The Kings 4-3 In LA

The Blackhawks started their game against LA on Monday night totally opposite how they finished the game in Anaheim Sunday.  Chicago looked tired and dis-organized, and LA took advantage of it.  The Kings quickly jumped out and were out shooting Chicago 10-0 in the first 8 minutes which included Michal Handzus's PP goal less than 5 minutes in.  Marian Hossa's PP goal late in the period seemed to salvage the horrendous period, and it also seemed to wake up the offense.

After Patrick Sharp's PP goal in the 2nd, it seemed as if maybe the Hawks had righted the ship, and would take control of the game.  The game did even out a little, but a Ryan Smyth breakaway goal late in the 2nd put the Hawks right back at square one.

Deja Vu was rampant in the 3rd period as Patrick Sharp again gave Chicago the lead to only have it taken away by Ryan Smyth....again.  Just as LA took back momentum by tying the game up, Jonathan Toews got a lucky goal off his own skate just before the 15:00 mark.  The defense and Corey Crawford held off the Kings for the remainder of the game, and Chicago escaped with a necessary 2 points.

One encouraging sign of the Hawks game tonight was not only that they won, but it seems as if they may have awoken the sleeping giant known as Marian Hossa.  Hossa's PP goal in the 1st period was his first in 10 games, and 2nd out of his last 19 games.  Hossa also had multiple scoring chances, including a shot right off the goal post.  If the Hawks want to stay in the Western Conference playoff hunt, players like Hossa will need to continue to produce.

Other Notable Points:

• This was Jonathan Toews first game back since injuring his shoulder against St. Louis.
• Even though USA lost to Canada 4-1 in the World Juniors, both Blackhawks prospects on team USA (Nick Leddy and Jeremy Morin) recorded assists on the lone goal for the Americans.
• All-Star selections are to be revealed tomorrow and it is believed that Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith will be the Blackhawk representatives in the game.

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In this forum, you will find a In-Game-Thread for EVERY Blackhawk game where fans meet and chat during the game...here is the one for tonight's game vs. LA Kings:

Blackhawks Vs. Kings In-Game-Thread

Poor Start, Jonas Hiller Too Much For The Blackhawks As They Fall 2-1 in Anaheim

The Blackhawks headed west on Sunday visiting their Western Conference foes from Anaheim.  The Ducks came into this game on a 2 game win streak, and it showed early.  The Ducks dominated the first half of the game with a few sporadic chances for the Blackhawks including Bryan Bickell's goal late in the 1st period.  Andreas Lilja's 1st period goal, and Corey Perry's early 2nd period tally were enough as Jonas Hiller stopped 39 total shots including 19 in a 3rd period dominated by Chicago.  The Hawks had many scoring opportunities turned aside by Hiller, and a potential game tying goal by Viktor Stalberg was denied by the stick of Dave Bolland who inadvertently deflected Stalberg's shot late in the 3rd.

There were a few positive points however in this loss...for the first time in a long time, Viktor Stalberg's presence was felt on the ice.  With arguably his best game in weeks, the winger recorded 4 shots, good enough for 3rd most on the team.  Also, Bryan Bickell has continued to show improvement, and Corey Crawford recorded yet another solid game between the pipes.

Other bullet points:

• It was reported today by multiple media outlets that Jonathan Toew's shoulder injury wasn't as bad as originally believed, and that the Hawks captain could maybe play Monday night in Los Angeles.
• Viktor Stalberg's goal-less streak is now at 17 games, while Marian Hossa has only 1 goal in his last 18 games.
• Fernando Pisani and Jordan Hendry returned to the lineup after being scratched the last couple of games.
• Jake Dowell was benched the entire 3rd period Sunday night