The Blackhawks Squeak Out A Win Over The Stars

Added on Dec 09, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Chicago managed to beat the Dallas Stars with out the scoring sticks of Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa Wednesday night in Chicago 5-3. After goals by Bryan Bickell, Jonathon Toews and Jeremy Morin it seemed like the Blackhawks were going to skate to an easy win without their starters. However, the Stars managed to make to score three in the second period, and bring the game to with in one.

Chicago Coach Joe Quenneville felt the team was relaxing on the lead. He said “We were better in the third period and we had to be. This has been a trend around here for at least a year or two. We get up by three or four and we lose our concentration. We all think we want to score, and we get ahead of ourselves and we don’t do the things that earn us the pucks and we give up stuff. I thought we were better in the third when we had to be, but it was still a dangerous game.”

Patrick Shark agreed, and he said the hawks got an earful when they let Dallas back in the game. It prompted Coach Quenneville to call his timeout, Sharp said “A lot of guys weren’t happy and especially our coaching staff. We’ve done that far too many times this year with letting teams back in the game. I don’t want to say we blew it, but I’ll say it. Our power play blew it in the second period with a few opportunities. It could have been a 5-1 lead on the scoreboard.”

Hawks rookie goalie Corey Crawford, who improved to 8-4-0 by stopping 28 of 31 shots, said “There was a span there where … when your team’s up 4-,1 you’ve got to find a way to make a couple saves to keep the score that way. I don’t know what happened there, but we were able to stay with it and shut them down in the third.” Crawford is now on a personal winning streak of 7 games.

The score sounds much worse then the game was. Chicago didn’t get its final goal until the closing second of the 3rd period, and Coach Marc Crawford was furious with a non call. With eight seconds remaining in a 4-3 game, Stars defenseman Trevor Daley went around Brent Seabrook in the Blackhawks zone. As Seabrook turned to recover, he fell and his stick went flying in the direction of Daley. The penalty would have rewarded the Stars with a penalty shot. Crawford said “You can’t miss a call like that at the end of the game. There is no excuse. A guy throws his stick. It’s a penalty shot in every sense of the word. Every sense of the word. One referee is looking right at it. He misses it. They’ve given us five penalties, maybe six in the game and they miss a call that’s a clear penalty shot? A clear penalty shot. How do guys miss that? Because that is the easiest call, the easiest call in the book to make.”

Brent Seabrook said he didn’t throw his stick, “I was caught flat-footed and I caught an edge. My stick just came out when I hit the ice and I think the referee realized that. I don’t know. It could have been a penalty. It would have been a tough one.”

Crawford felt like that was a cop out, he said “When a guy throws his stick, it’s an automatic penalty shot. That’s the call, that’s the call. Everybody in the crowd saw it, everybody in the broadcast saw it, everybody on the benches saw it but nobody else saw it. The people that were important didn’t see it. Hey, at the end of the day it’s a tough loss for our team but at the same time it gets frustrating when you miss obvious calls like that.”

Coach Quenneville understood where Crawford was coming from, but didn’t thin thats what Seabrook meant to do. He said Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was sympathetic but didn’t agree with the intent. He said “He fell from so high and he’s extending his stick. I don’t think he was intending on doing what they were thinking. You could argue that. It’s tough to prove and it’s instincts by the referee. Knowing Seabs [Seabrook], I don’t think that was the intent.”

Coach Q will take the Blackhawks (16-12-2 34pts), who are 2nd in Central Division, to San Jose to Play the Sharks (14-9-4, 32pts) on Saturday. The Stars (16-9-2 34pts) , who are 1st in Pacific Division, will face the Carolina Hurricanes (11-12-3, 25pts) at home on Friday night.