"Tonight we were in the right places every
time and we didn't give them much," said Blackhawks forward
Marian Hossa,
who had two assists. "Obviously we had lots of puck
possession and that was the key."
Five Chicago players posted two-point games.
Patrick Sharp
scored twice to give him 10 goals in the past 14 games and 18 for the
season. Nick
Leddy had a goal and assist, and Patrick
Kane extended his point streak to 12 games with a goal in the
second period. Brent
Seabrook, Brandon
Saad and Hossa each had with two assists for Chicago (26-7-6),
which heads into the three-day Christmas break on a high note. After
the break, a tough back-to-back set awaits, Friday at home against
the Colorado Avalanche and Saturday at the St. Louis Blues.
"It feels good," Sharp said. "[It
was] a big win in front of our crowd and with three days off it feels
even better. We can kind of put our feet up and relax, enjoy our
families and get ready for two big games coming out of the break."
Prior to the game, Devils coach Peter DeBoer told
reporters it would be a tall challenge trying to contain the NHL's
top-scoring team. The Blackhawks came into the game with 140 goals,
15 more than the second-ranked Blues. "Their ability to
create offense, I think the goals for speak for themselves. That's a
team that can put four or five [goals] on the board really easily.
They're high-octane and we have to find a way to slow them down."
The plan nearly worked until the third period,
when Chicago answered an early goal by Michael
Ryder with two of their own. Sharp and Leddy scored about seven
minutes apart in the third to blow the game open. Sharp's goal came
on a breakaway, when Hossa found him with a nice pass behind the New
Jersey defense and he buried a snap shot past Cory
Schneider's glove for a 4-2 lead. There is some talk about
whether Sharp will be selected to play for Team Canada in the
upcoming Winter Olympics, but at least one teammate thinks it's an
easy call.
"If he's not being considered then I
wouldn't really know what to say, because the guy's had a heck of a
last few seasons and a great start again to this season,"
forward Kris
Versteeg said. "He's put himself in the running to be
nominated to that team, so for his sake I hope he makes it. He
definitely deserves it."
Versteeg and Leddy assisted on Kane's goal, which
gave him a second point streak of 12 games this season. The streaks
are separated by one pointless game, Nov. 29, a 2-1 shootout victory
on the road against the Dallas Stars.
"I think I'm just learning more about the
game and about what I can do when I get the puck," said
Kane, who has six goals and 19 points in the current streak. "I
can create opportunities for myself and my teammates, so it's really
nothing more than that. I guess I've maybe learned a little more
about the League and how to create chances and how to get to the net
to try to produce."
It was Chicago's first victory against New Jersey
since April 2, 2010 and first at United Center against the Devils
since Dec. 31, 2009. Blackhawks rookie Antti
Raanta improved to 8-1-2 in 12 games by making 10 saves;
Schneider stopped 32 shots for the Devils. New Jersey got its other
goal from Stephen
Gionta. DeBoer saw what he wanted, for the most part, in the
first period. New Jersey limited Chicago's scoring chances and held
the Blackhawks to 12 shots. The problem was how much it limited the
Devils' offense. They put one shot on goal against Raanta in the
period and trailed 1-0 after Sharp's opening goal at 12:59, a long
wrister near the half wall above the left circle.
"It was just a messy, ugly game,"
DeBoer said. "That's a great team that can make you look bad
if you're not on your game and we weren't on our game. I don't have a
reason, no excuse. It's a good lesson for us, so I think we're a team
that has to play at full capacity every night. We can't have
passengers. We can't have an off night. If we do have an off night
against a team like that, that's what it looks like."
Gionta tied it 5:37 into the second period by
tipping Jonathan Merrill's shot from the high slot past Raanta for
his second goal of the season. The Blackhawks went right back to
controlling the puck for long stretches to widen their advantage in
shots. They retook the lead and widened it with the goals by Kane and
Bryan Bickell
4:30 apart. Kane smacked home a rebound of Leddy's shot from the slot
at 7:57 after the puck popped out of Schneider's glove. Bickell took
a feed from Saad and made it 3-1 at 12:27 by wiring a wrister through
traffic into the upper right corner. Chicago hit the post a couple
times in the second to keep it a two-goal margin, with a 25-8
advantage in shots. That set the stage for the Devils to get within
3-2 on Ryder's goal 59 seconds into the third; he backhanded a shot
from the low slot past Raanta. Hossa picked up his second assist with
another great pass to Sharp for the breakaway goal, and Leddy
followed with his power-play goal at 12:59.
"When you go into the best team in the
League's building and the defending Stanley Cup champs, you have to
have the effort," Schneider said. "Teams like that
will run you out of the building if you're not at your best. I think
we all as a group, including me, we can be better."
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