The Blackhawks jumped out to an early lead, then held on to edge original six rival Toronto 3-2 at the UC Friday night. Patrick Kane opened the scoring by stealing the puck from Luke Schenn to the left of the Toronto goal, leaving him with a clear shot at Toskala & he wired it high into the top right hand corner, glove side to put the hawks up 1-0, just over 3 minutes into the game.
Schenn had been out on a long shift together with the leafs' 4th line and had to stay on the ice after an icing call. Quenneville took advantage by putting out his top guns, and despite a rare Leafs' face-off win (they won just over 40% of the face-offs on the night), and gaining control of the puck, Schenn failed to make the safe (& smart) play by simply dumping the puck out to get a line change, and instead chose to try to skate it out of the zone, perhaps tempted by the amount of open ice in front of him & not expecting any backside pressure. Kane promptly lifted the slower Schenn's stick from behind with his own, stole the puck and fired it in, before being flattened by Colton Orr.
The hawks kept buzzing in the first, and ten minutes later, after an offensive zone face-off win by Madden, Seabrook passed it over to his blueline partner Keith, whose point shot was deflected by a Leaf player in front of a screened Toskala, who again had no chance and the hawks were up by 2.
A few moments later, after another Leaf turnover, this time in the neutral zone, Ben Eager found himself with a breakaway, but was stoned by Toskala. The hawks then caught a big break a minute or so later when the leafs came close & looked like they may have scored. Stempniak, made a lead pass from his own blue line, to spring Hagman who had gained inside position on Sopel at the hawk line - Sopel recovered enough to harrass Hagman & cause him to slow down & turn, however Wallin following up on the play beat a slow-footed Barker back & was open to take Hagman's back pass, creating a clear chance.
Sopel then sprawled on the ice in front of Huet to try to block Wallin's shot attempt, however, Wallin forced Huet into making a good save, leaving a rebound to his right. Wallin fell as he tried to stop to get to the rebound, but still managed to get to the puck before Barker (who kept skating past the falling Wallin and the loose puck, being slow to stop & react) or Sopel (who had no idea where the rebound went and was looking to his left, presumably at his guy, the now open Hagman, as he got up off the ice, bumping into Huet in the process). Wallin while sprawled on the ice to the right of Huet, managed to gain control of the puck & with the shaft of his stick flat on the ice passed it across the crease to the open Hagman, while Huet sprawled across the goal line to get his glove up against his left post & prevent an easy tap in.
Hagman gathered the puck & took two shots that Huet managed to block with his glove, before Stempniak arrived unchecked in the crease to jam at the puck (& Huet's open glove). While it appeared that Stempniak may have pushed the puck (& Huet's glove) behind the goal line, (he certainly indicated as much by raising his arms and stopping on the play), the referees did not signal a goal & Sopel dug the puck out and skated it out of the crease as play continued, with the hawks rushing up ice. Stempniak obviously frustrated ended up taking it out on Kris Versteeg, checking him into the boards from behind in the Leaf zone to finally stop play and allow for video review.
After considerable delay, the play was ruled no goal since the video was not conclusive enough to overturn the referee's on-ice call. To add insult to injury, Stempniak was assessed a minor for high sticking, effectively putting the Leafs down a man, just when he thought he may have pulled them to within 1. Just over a minute later, another Leaf penalty to Exelby for boarding/crosschecking Versteeg again into the boards from behind, put them down 2 men for about half a minute, but the hawks again failed to capitalize (& are now 0 for 4 on the season with a 2 man advantage).
Early in the 2nd period, the hawks did manage to finally get a power play goal on their 3rd opporunity to go up 3-0, with a set play off another offensive zone face-off win by Toews. The puck went back to Keith at the left point, who then skated backwards to the middle of the blue line. Sharp dropped back into Keith's vacated left point position, while Campbell moved in off the right point. Sharp took Keith's pass back across, moved in a few strides and fired a shot from the top of the left circle that Brouwer again deflected past Toskala, reminiscent of their combining for a goal against LA on Monday, putting the hawks seemingly firmly in control.
Luke Schenn, perhaps seeking to make amends for his first period gaffe that directly led to the opening goal & looking to give his team a spark decided to take on Brouwer midway thru the 2nd. Tho no major damage was done, it did seem to give the leafs a jolt. About 5 minutes later, late in the 2nd, Kessel took a pass at the red line and skated up the left side. The hawks were in good shape defensively with 3 men back & Keith challenging Kessel with his stick as he gained the zone. Kessel however moved across the slot, with Keith backing off, leaving Kessel for other hawk defenders (Hjalmarsson & Ladd) to cover while he peeled back to cover Blake who was following Kessel down the left side. Kessel was still well out as he moved across the slot to his right & let go a seemingly harmless looking shot back across the grain to his left that caught Huet by surprise & too far back in his crease. 3-1 & suddenly the leafs had life.
Jonathan Toews on a great individual effort before the end of the second almost restored a 3 goal margin, but couldn't beat Toskala after getting by Ian White to break in alone. He got Toskala to go down, but the beleaugered Leaf goalie managed to get his skate against the right post, not giving Toews an opening low & made a key save with his right pad.
Early in the 3rd, right after the hawks had killed a questionable bench minor for too many men, Kessel again rushed up the left side with the hawks having 3 men back plus Kopecky coming back out of the box on the right side. This time Sopel backed off far too much (likely in deference to Kessel's speed), and in doing so effectively took himself completely out of the play, leaving the hawks defensive zone coverage scrambling, having to decide who to take. Madden tried to cover by dropping his man to go after puck-carrier Kessel, and forced him back up high towards the blue line, but not realizing that the other four hawks had all collapsed back deep in front of Huet, Madden peeled off, giving Kessel room to move back in on the right side. Without being challenged, Kessel fired a hard, high shot that beat a screened Huet who had gone down early, apparently trying to see low through the traffic in front to follow the play & puck.
The leafs continued to press the rest of the 3rd, forcing Huet to make some good saves, outshooting the hawks 11-6, but the hawks managed to hang on for their 6th straight win at home.
Keith again led in ice time with just over 26 minutes, while Seabrook climbed back towards the mid 20s, wtih Campbell & Hjalmarsson at about 20 minutes each.
Patrick Kane led all hawk forwads with over 20 minutes and was the object of some pre-game jabs from his US Olympic team (& on the night opposing) coach Ron Wilson, who teased him about having some spare change if he needed it (in reference to Kane's arrest & conviction for assaulting a Buffalo cabbie over a disputed $.15 tip during the summer). Kane got the last laugh though by seizing on struggling defenseman Schenn's poor play and opening the scoring, the 15th game this year (out of 17) in which Toronto has given up the opening goal.
With the win, the hawks remain two points ahead of Columbus, which rebounded from a 9-1 thrashing at home to Detroit on Wednesday to beat Anaheim in a shootout on Friday also at home. The hawks host San Jose next, which finds itself atop the western conference again despite losing a SO at home to Dallas on Thursday.
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