As if playing without their captain and arguably best player
wasn’t difficult enough, the Blackhawks made things harder on
themselves Thursday night when their discipline disappeared. The
Hawks were a mess with their sticks and it cost them as they fell
to the Sharks, 5-3, at the United Center.
CHICAGO
As if playing without their captain and arguably best player wasn’t difficult enough, the Blackhawks made things harder on themselves Thursday night when their discipline disappeared.
The Hawks were a mess with their sticks and it cost them as they fell to the Sharks, 5-3, at the United Center.
Joe Thornton scored early in the third period to break a 3-3 tie and hand the Hawks, who were without the services of center Jonathan Toews with a right shoulder injury, their second consecutive defeat. Dany Heatley had a goal and assist while Scott Nichol and Benn Ferriero also scored as former Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi won his third game of the season against his old team.
Patrick Sharp had a goal and assist and Troy Brouwer and Brian Campbell scored for the Hawks but it wasn’t enough as Marty Turco suffered the loss in net. The Sharks took advantage of six Hawks penalties that helped them to three goals before the crowd of 22,112.
“You can’t take penalties against a team like this,” said Hawks forward Tomas Kopecky, who did just that late in the first period and became the first leg of a key two-man advantage in the second during which Ferriero scored.
“I think everyone in this room is frustrated but we have to battle through it,” he said.
During their two-game skid, the Hawks have been short-handed 10 times. In the four-game winning streak that preceded it, they were down a man on seven occasions.
“We know how we need to play, we played that way in the four games when we were winning,” Kopecky said. “We kept it simple, and we stayed out of the box, and we were winning.”
After the Hawks scored first on a power-play goal of their own from Sharp, the Sharks reeled off three consecutive goals and appeared headed to the dressing room before the third period with a comfortable lead.
However, Brouwer and Campbell scored 22 seconds apart as the clock wound down in the second to tie the score and give the Hawks momentum.
It was short-lived as Thornton scored the game-winner 7 minutes, 13 seconds into the third while the Hawks were regrouping after a Jassen Cullimore penalty had expired.
“We’ve been really responsible and not taking penalties,” said Turco, who made 20 saves. “Penalties that aren’t from the hard-nosed aggressive type ones are tougher to swallow. We expect to kill them off but that played a big factor.”
Niemi made 26 saves in his first appearance at the United Center since helping the Hawks capture their first Stanley Cup in 49 years before departing as a free agent.
“We haven’t been able to be consistent lately all game through, so (Thursday night) we had a bad five minutes and let in two goals,” Niemi said. “We’ve just got to keep working is the main thing. But there were a lot of power plays and it wasn’t an easy game for goalies.”
— Story by Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune
