Hawks roll over Sharks, 7-2, Win streak hits 8 straight.

Powered by three shorthanded goals, two on the same penalty, by Marian Hossa & Patrick Sharp, the blackhawks cruised to a lopsided 7-2 win over San Jose, handing the sharks their first regulation loss at home this season while extending their own current win streak to 8.

Troy Brouwer opened the scoring when he was sent in alone shorthanded on a nice pass by Hjalmarsson from deep inside the hawk zone. Brouwer wired a wrister past Nabakov and the hawks were up 1-0.

The hawks broke the game open early in the 2nd, down a man, when Hossa just missed poking the puck away from Boyle at the point as he was winding up to shoot, just failing to give himself a chance at a breakaway. However, the puck squirted loose and while Hossa's momentum carried him past Boyle to center, Jonathan Toews gained control of the loose puck & led Hossa with a perfect pass at center to send him in alone. Hossa waited for Nabakov to commit before firing a wrist shot high stick side to put the hawks up 2-0.

Less than 30 seconds later Patrick Sharp corralled a loose puck at center, and moved in alone on Nabakov when Kent Huskins fell down. Sharp got Nabakov to go down after a couple of dekes, then lifted it over him and the hawks had 3 goals against the league's top ranked powerplay in the span of 7:40 minutes from late in the 1st to early in the 2nd.

Dustin Byfuglien added a goal midway thru the 2nd, parked in his usual spot in front of the net & picking up a loose puck after Nabakov had stopped Barker's point shot. Byfuglien's initial jam attempt was stopped, but still unchecked, he dug the puck away from Nabakov's pad & fired it into the open cage to make it 4-0.

The hawks then had two powerplay opportunities of their own, but couldn't convert and headed into the dressing room leading 4-0 after two periods, and outshooting the sharks, 29 to 11.

After killing off two early penalties in the 3rd, the hawks scored again, Seabrook taking a hard cross-ice pass at the right point from Duncan Keith and firing a shot that deflected off a shark player and in behind Thomas Greiss, who had replaced Nabakov to start the 3rd. 5-0 Chicago. A minute later, Patrick Kane started a beautiful play gaining the high slot and finding Brent Sopel moving in off the right point with a perfect pass. Greiss, moving out to play the shot, was caught out of position when Sopel hit Hossa, who was moving in off left wing, with a quick pass, giving him a virtual open net & Hossa had his second of the game, making it 6-0.

John Madden added another midway through the 3rd, with Keith picking up his 3rd assist of the game, and all that was in doubt was whether Huet would get his 2nd shutout of the season and the 2nd in as many games for the hawks.

That however, was not to be as the hawks 5/6 defensive pairing ran into penalty trouble late in the 3rd - with Barker & Sopel, getting more minutes due to the blowout, they both took hooking penalties within 23 seconds of each other to give the sharks powerplay an extended 5 on 3 advantage. Huet made several saves, however, Dan Boyle finally broke the ice and Huet's shutout bid. Joe Pavelski added another just over a minute later, but the hawks skated off with a big 7-2 win, beating the top team in the NHL and their top ranked powerplay with 3 shorthanded goals and outshooting them 41 to 24, in handing them their first home regulation loss this season.

It was quite the debut for Hossa, as he looked dangerous early in the game & added another element to the already potent duo of Kane & Toews, finishing up with over 16 minutes of ice time. Andrew Ladd appeared to be the hawk forward to give up the most ice time to make room for #81, playing just under 11 minutes. The hawks defense was solid again, particularly Keith & Seabrook, who not only shut down Thornton, Heatley & Marleau, one of the hottest lines in the league, but they also chipped in with a combined 5 points of their own and a +6.

It was difficult to find anything in the hawks game that wasn't on. They have already guaranteed themselves of finishing over .500 on their annual circus road trip, and have outscored the home teams by a combined 20-5 while going 4-0 on this trip (and not giving up any OT points against their conference foes). They will finish it up by visiting Anaheim on Friday afternoon, and Los Angeles on Saturday.

With the win, the hawks moved to within 2 points of 1st overall (with 3 games in hand on SJ), and they are now tied for 2nd overall in the NHL. They rank 3rd in goals scored behind only Washington & San Jose and have the lowest goals against average in the league, just ahead of New Jersey. It doesn't get much better than this at this point in the season.