NHL - Hawks - Round Up - March 12-19, 2017

Wild @ Hawks 2-4 - Sunday, March 12, 2017

Corey Crawford made a season-high 42 saves to help the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-2 against the Minnesota Wild at United Center. Crawford made 12 saves in the first period, 20 in the second and 10 in the third for Chicago, which was outshot 44-22. The victory pulled the Blackhawks (43-20-5) within a point of the Wild (43-18-6) for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference. Minnesota, which has a game in hand, went 1-2-1 in the season series against Chicago. The Wild pulled to within 3-2 on a goal by Mikael Granlund 46 seconds into the third but were unable to overcome an early 2-0 lead by the Blackhawks, who scored on their first two shots of the game.

Charlie Coyle hit the post at 4:47 of the third period and Erik Haula was stopped by Crawford on a breakaway at 6:40. Crawford also stopped Nino Niederreiter on a breakaway with 8:28 left in the second and made a left pad save to deny Coyle from the low slot in the second. Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Marian Hossa scored for Chicago, which had lost two straight games. Panarin and Kane combined to give the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the first period. Panarin fed Kane 51 seconds into the game to make it 1-0 on his 30th goal, and Kane set up Panarin's goal at 4:38.

Wild coach Bruce Boudreau pulled goalie Devan Dubnyk after Panarin scored. Darcy Kuemper replaced him and made 18 saves. Minnesota, which played without center Martin Hanzal (illness), outshot Chicago 13-5 in the first.
The Wild made it 2-1 on Staal's goal at 10:30 of the first period. Seconds after Ryan White was called for tripping in the second, Van Riemsdyk made it 3-1 with a tap-in goal at 5:28.

* Hossa put the Blackhawks up by two with 6:18 left in the third to make it 4-2. Duncan Keith's stretch pass sprung him for a breakaway, which he converted with a slap shot from the slot.

* Crawford made a sprawling left pad save at 9:05 of the second period against Coyle to keep the Blackhawks ahead 3-1. The puck deflected off of Jonathan Toews and landed in the front of the net for Coyle.

"On that one, I just tried to shuffle quick, get a push and stretch out," Crawford said. "You just try to get your pad as close as you can to his stick."

* Kuemper kept the Wild in the game by allowing two goals on 20 shots. He was pulled after two periods in the Wild' 7-4 win at the Florida Panthers on Friday.

* Panarin's backhand pass ricocheted off Marco Scandella's skates and went to Kane for a wrist shot he sent over Dubnyk's left shoulder for the opening goal.

* Kuemper made his 100th career NHL appearance. … Kane moved into second place in the League in scoring with 73 points (30 goals, 43 assists).

"That's a fun game. It's always fun to play in those games that are fast-paced and the crowd's into it. Those are way more fun than if it's just chippy and nothing's going on." Crawford said.
"Huge game by [Crawford], but I think overall we want to be better as a team. We have 14 games left to make sure that happens and feel good about ourselves going into the [Stanley Cup Playoffs]. We'll see what happens now." Kane said.
"I don't think you ever want to put a number in your mind, but it's nice to reach those milestones, whether it's 20 or 30 [goals], and after that you try and get as [many] as you can." Patrick Kane.

Hawks @ Montreal Canadiens 4-2 - Tuesday, March 14, 2017
The Chicago Blackhawks moved into first place in the Central Division and Western Conference with a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre. Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists, Johnny Oduya scored the first of his return to the Blackhawks, and Artemi Panarin scored for a third straight game for Chicago (44-20-5), which has a one-point lead over the Minnesota Wild, who lost 4-2 to the Washington Capitals. Shea Weber got Montreal within 3-2 when he scored with 3:28 remaining in the third period. Jonathan Toews scored into an empty net with 1:22 left. Corey Crawford made 40 saves, including a Weber slap shot in the second period that struck him squarely on the mask and knocked him back onto the ice. Carey Price made 20 saves in his 500th NHL game for Montreal (39-23-8), which had won seven of eight. It has lost seven in a row to Chicago. Kane gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 12:23 of the first period. Oduya made it 2-0 at 10:49 of the second period with a slap shot from the left point. It was the second goal of the season for Oduya, who was traded to Chicago by the Dallas Stars on Feb. 28. Kane assisted on Panarin's goal, which increased the lead to 3-0 47 seconds into the third period. Paul Byron made it 3-1 with 7:18 remaining.

* Nick Schmaltz, who centered Chicago's top line after Artem Anisimov was injured, snuck a look while retrieving Kane's pass along the left side and made a hard centering pass to Panarin, who was left open in the slot by Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin to shoot past Price.

* Crawford stuck out his left pad to make a save on Alex Galchenyuk's power-play shot to protect a 1-0 lead in the second period.

* Anisimov spun around in the neutral zone to shield the puck from Emelin and carried it down the right side on his way to setting up Kane's goal. Anisimov curled toward the boards at the top of the right faceoff circle, drawing Emelin with him, and passed to Kane, who was unmarked and had an open lane for his shot past Price, which went in off the left post.

* Canadiens defenseman Jordie Benn had two of his three blocked shots in the first period during Chicago's first power play, when he also checked Kane at the blue line to break up a zone entry.

* Anisimov left the game with a left leg injury sustained at the end of the first period. He was helped off the ice after falling awkwardly when he was checked by Canadiens right wing Alexander Radulov in the left corner of the Montreal zone. "It's not the serious kind, so we'll see how he does over the next few days," Quenneville said. … Price is 264-172-55 with Montreal since 2007-08 and third among Canadiens goalies in games (Jacques Plante, 556; Patrick Roy, 551).

"We had a lot of chances and we shut down a lot of second chances for them; a pretty solid game for us, and we carried some momentum here and it's a great win, especially in this building."
"I didn't have any time to get out of the way. It was a hard shot. A slow pass and I just tried to go out and take the angle away, and it's too bad he smoked me there." Crawford said.
"We closed a nice little gap in the last two games with them and I think we'll keep trying to push ahead or stay ahead." Joel Quenneville said.

"We built ourselves a good lead there and they had a couple of plays where they get themselves back in the game, all of a sudden it's 3-2. So we want to be better in that situation, make sure we're shutting everything down, but we knew they were going to come with a push. It was nice to hold on there and finish the game and get the two points." Kane said.

Hawks  @ Ottawa Senators 2-1 - Thursday, March 16, 2017
Richard Panik scored a power-play goal with 3:01 remaining and Scott Darling made 33 saves to help the Chicago Blackhawks to a 2-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. Duncan Keith also scored for the Blackhawks (45-20-5), who have won three in a row and moved three points ahead of the Minnesota Wild for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference. Minnesota lost 3-1 at the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Panik scored his 18th goal of the season 44 seconds after the Senators killed off a 5-on-3 disadvantage. The Blackhawks are 15-3-0 in their past 18 games. Kyle Turris scored and Mike Condon made 26 saves for the Senators (39-23-7), who lost in regulation for the first time in eight games (6-1-1) and remained one point behind the Montreal Canadiens for first place in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand. Keith gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 8:04 of the third period. His hard shot from the right circle was stopped by Condon, but the puck rolled over the line while Nick Schmaltz battled for position in front of the net. It was ruled a good goal following a video review. Turris tied the game with a power-play goal at 11:23 when he one-timed Erik Karlsson's pass from the left circle past Darling to make it 1-1.

* The Senators have been talking about getting more screens and traffic in front of the net, and Bobby Ryan executed it perfectly on Turris' power-play goal.

* After Senators forward Derick Brassard shot the puck off the side of his own net at 5:44 of the second period, it caromed into the slot to Blackhawks forward Artemi Panarin, but Condon got his glove on Panarin's hard shot.

* Patrick Kane made a smart play behind the net when he found Panik in the left circle for the winning goal. Panik's quick shot went in over Condon's right shoulder.

* Defenseman Johnny Oduya had six of the Blackhawks' 24 blocked shots in 18:21 of ice time.

* Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov missed his first game because of a lower-body injury that is expected to keep him out 3-4 weeks. … Senators forward Mark Stone (lower body) missed his third straight game. He is week-to-week. … Senators goaltender Craig Anderson missed his second game in a row because of a lower-body injury. He skated Thursday and is expected back Tuesday against the Boston Bruins, according to Boucher.

"He's [Scott Darling] been terrific for us all year, real consistent, real big. They put a lot of bodies at the net, traffic and he made some key stops at key times and he looked big, had good control of rebounds. It's nice when your goalies, no matter who, or what stage of the game, they just keep getting the job done at important times, especially." Joel Quenneville said.
"I think we've got confidence in our team game now, especially over the last month, month and a bit, the way we've progressed as a team, all four lines, all the six defensemen, both goaltenders. We just want to keep getting better. One thing we know in this group is never to get too high or too low. We're still a ways away from playoffs. We could win every game for the rest of the year up until playoffs, and it doesn't really matter. We like the way we've been playing and progressing here especially the last month or so." Keith said.

Colorado Avalanche @ Hawks 3-6 - Sunday, March 19, 2017
The Chicago Blackhawks scored five goals in the third period, including three in 34 seconds, to rally for a 6-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at United Center. The Blackhawks (47-20-5) became the first Western Conference team to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Calgary Flames defeated the Los Angeles Kings. Chicago leads the Minnesota Wild by seven points for first place in the Central Division and conference. Mikhail Grigorenko scored two goals and Sven Andrighetto had one for Colorado (20-48-3), which led 3-1 entering the third. Chicago surged ahead 4-3 on goals from Toews at 10:17, Richard Panik at 10:34 and Artemi Panarin at 10:51. Toews scored his 20th goal at 13:19 to put the Blackhawks ahead 5-3, and Marcus Kruger scored into an empty net with two seconds left. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar challenged that Toews was offside before he scored his first goal of the night to get the Blackhawks within 3-2, but video review was inconclusive. Blackhawks rookie John Hayden had two assists in his third NHL game, after scoring his first goal in the League in Chicago's 2-1 overtime win at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Patrick Kane had a goal and assist, Panarin had a goal and assist, rookie Nick Schmaltz had two assists, and goalie Scott Darling made 22 saves.

Jeremy Smith made 19 of his 28 saves in the first and second periods for the Avalanche, but allowed four goals on 13 shots in the third.

* Toews scored his first goal after tagging up at the blue line and skating to the low slot. He got his stick on the puck after Hayden tipped Duncan Keith's shot from the point.

* Darling gloved Joe Colborne's shot with 5:03 left in the second. Colborne got the puck near the right post off a pass from Matt Nieto and avoided Darling's poke-check, but Darling snagged his wrist shot. "The Colborne one was pretty crazy," Darling said. "I was going fishing and I didn't catch anything on that one. I just tried to get a glove on it and I did."

* Blackhawks defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk had two takeaways, two blocked shots, two shots on goal and one assist. He led all players with 25:41 of ice time.

* Panarin scored the game-winner 17 seconds after Panik's goal in the third. Smith got a piece of Panarin's shot, but the puck hit the crossbar and bounced into the net off the back of Smith's leg.
* Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. … Quenneville said defenseman Johnny Oduya (ankle) didn't play because he was getting additional rest. … The goals by Toews, Panik and Panarin in 34 seconds were the fastest three at home in Blackhawks history, acccording to the Elias Sports Bureau. They scored three in 21 seconds March 23, 1952, at the New York Rangers, and in 30 seconds Oct. 15, 1983, at the Toronto Maple Leafs. ... Avalanche forward John Mitchell was scratched and missed his first game since Jan. 31.

"We've been in a lot of tight games lately, where offense has been hard to come by, and it looked like it was the same thing for 40 minutes tonight. It's nice for us to finally get a few bounces, and no doubt it gets your crowd into it and energizes your team. It made a huge difference for us tonight." Jonathan Toews said.
"I thought it was the right call [the review of Toews' first goal]. It doesn't trigger the offside until he touches the puck and [Jonathan Toews] gets his skate back on time, right at probably the same time as we touch it. You could say it was a tie. That is the Minnesota play." Joel Quenneville said.