Blackhawks 2, Jets 1 (OT) – Recap

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: February 7, 2015

The MTS Centre was the site for a matchup of two teams that both really needed a win – the Blackhawks and the Winnipeg Jets. The Hawks came into this one having been shut out in each of their two previous tilts, first against the San Jose Sharks in a game in which former Blackhawk Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Antti Niemi stood on his head, the second a poor effort against the Minnesota Wild.

The Hawks started out with much better effort than they showed against the Wild, but the game’s first real action came in the form of a fight between Daniel Carcillo and Chris Thorburn stemming from the last meeting between these teams when Carcillo crosschecked Mathieu Perreault, a hit that earned Carcillo a six-game suspension.

Despite the Hawks controlling the action and getting the better chances early on, the Jets scored the game’s first goal 4:17 in when the puck bounced off an official’s skate right to Mark Scheifele in front of the net and he got it by Corey Crawford. The Hawks would continue to control the action, but remained unable to get anything past Michael Hutchinson. The Hawks would get a power play just under ten-and-a-half minutes in when Blake Wheeler was sent off for tripping. The Hawks spent nearly all of the power play in the offensive zone, generating three shots in the process; however, nothing got past Hutchinson and the score remained 1-0 in favor of Winnipeg.

The Jets stepped up their play later in the period, getting shots that required Crawford to make stellar saves to keep them out of the net, but the Hawks would keep up their pace of play and continue to get their own chances, although, as was the case the rest of the period, nothing got by Hutchinson.

The Jets would get their first power play of the game just over nineteen-and-a-half minutes in when Marian Hossa was sent off for hooking. With the 21 seconds of power play time the Jets had in the first, they got a couple good looks, but no goals, and at the first intermission, the score was 1-0 Jets.

The Hawks started the second period by killing off the remainder of the penalty time from Hossa’s infraction in the first. The Hawks then started flying around the ice, generating their best chance of the game to that point, although the puck would stay out of the net. The Hawks would finally break their scoreless drought 2:50 into the period when Patrick Kane beat Michael Hutchinson on a breakaway, after great passes by Brad Richards and Patrick Sharp. Both teams’ pace of play would gradually slow and for the rest of the period, we would see a good amount of back-and-forth action with both teams getting shots but neither getting goals, and we would go into the third period tied at 1.

We picked up in the third right where we left off in the second, with both teams getting shots and both goalies making saves. The first real action in the period when a scrum developed after a play, which resulted in off-setting minors for Bryan Bickell and Andrew Shaw of the Blackhawks and Adam Pardy and Blake Wheeler of the Jets. As the period began to wind down, the Hawks began to step up their play, getting better, and more frequent, scoring opportunities, while limiting the Jets’. However, Hutchinson’s great night between the pipes would continue, and we would remain tied at 1. Momentum would shift to the Jets for the last couple minutes of the period, but the Hawks defense did their jobs and prevented any great looks at the goal. Sixty minutes would not be enough to decide this one, and we would head to overtime still tied at 1.

The Hawks would get the first chances in overtime, but shortly thereafter the Jets would get one of their own, but the puck was rolling and shot up high. After a lot of back-and-forth, with the two teams fighting for control, Brandon Saad beat Hutchinson after a great dish from Kane to give the Hawks a 2-1 victory.

This was a great win for the Hawks, beating Winnipeg for the first time all year, and bouncing back from a disappointing effort in Minnesota. It’s worth noting that things aren’t going quite so well for the Jets at the moment, with Evander Kane out for the year and the team being in a slump of their own, but still, it’s nice to get a win against a team that’s had the Hawks’ number all year, and to get said win on the road is even better.

I’d like to talk for just a minute about how great Patrick Kane was in this game. The score sheet is only going to show one goal and one assist, but his contributions to the Hawks’ winning effort Friday night go far beyond that. Toews, Hossa, and Teräväinen made nice contributions to the offense, but there was a noticeably large difference in the Hawks’ offense between when Kaner was on the ice and when he wasn’t. If I could, I’d give him all three stars. But since I can’t…

My picks for 3 stars:

★★★ Michael Hutchinson, G, WPG (20 SV, 2 GA)

★★ Corey Crawford, G, CHI (20 SV, 1 GA)

★ Patrick Kane, RW, CHI (1 G (GTG), 1 A)

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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