Hawks Move Up To 4th After Win Over Flames

Added on Mar 03, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

The Chicago Blackhawks have moved into fourth place after their 6-4 win over Calgary last night. With the win the Hawks have now won 6 straight, a season high, and after winning last night they have now jumped seven slots in just a few weeks. Calgary dropped one spot into sixth.

The game didn’t go perfectly as the Hawks wanted, as they let the Flames back in the game, but Jonathon Toews said there are good things they can take away from the game. Toews, who had two goals last night, said “We’re scoring goals, we’re making plays and we’re putting the other team on their heels early in games. But, again, it’s unfortunate that we let a team like that back in the game. We know they’re going to come hard in the third period and that’s the big issue we see in our game right now. It’s right there. We know how to fix it.”

Patrick Sharp felt the same, he said he was trying to look at the bright side of the win. “You can look at the last two games as a negative in the third period with the way we finished it, but I like to think of it that we won two close games. It’s going to be like that down the stretch and we’ve got to feel good about it.” The Hawks squandered a 3 goal lead going into the third period, and the flames chipped away at it and had it down to one before the empty-netter.

Flames coach Brent Sutter was hot and cold about the game, but obviously he didn’t like the outcome. Sutter said he liked how his team fought at the end but they made too many mistakes. He said “You score four goals on the road, you need to buckle down and you need to win the game. We were not good defensively. We gave up over 20 quality scoring chances against us and that’s not good enough. That’s why I harp on what I do about defensive play. Defense wins hockey games and we get a lot of offensive opportunities when we do that. Tonight we were sloppy, just not good in our own zone.”

Jonathon Toews, who was February’s player of the month, netted two goals and kept the momentum going. Toews said of his play “It’s obvious the way I feel. It’s easier to notice a player when the puck is going in and he’s getting his name on the score sheet. I wouldn’t say a lot has changed in my game. You focus and bear down on your opportunities and the puck goes in. You feel confident and people I guess are going to notice. I’d say that’s the only difference.” Toews has an NHL-best 25 points on 8 goals and 17 assists in 15 games since Jan. 25.

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said of Toews “Johnny’s got it going, It was an amazing play on the first goal. He’s finishing well. He’s a horse out there.”

Coach Q also had some good things to say about Michael Frolik. Frolick had 3 points on a goal and 2 assists after going pointless in his first nine games with the Blackhawks, but Frolik had high energy from the start and was visible throughout the game. Quenneville said “He had good energy, good pace. I liked his purpose in this game. He had a good thought process of where to be defensively. I really liked the way he was trending and it was just a matter of time before he scored. Now that he has scored, he’ll be a lot more comfortable with the puck. I like his overall game.”