The Chicago Blackhawks extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night. The Hawks are now 6-3-1 on the season, with wins in six of their past nine games.
The win continues a trend of success for the Blackhawks while the Chicago Cubs play. The Hawks are now 6-0-0 this season when the Cubs play on the same night, and 0-3-1 on nights when the National League champs don’t play. I don’t have much to add there other than that I wonder how many Cubs fans have actually watched their hockey team win a game yet.
Patrick Kane opened the scoring in the first period with a fantastic individual effort to get Chicago on the scoreboard. The winger took a pass from Michal Rozsival in the neutral zone and used his speed to create space for a wrist shot that Brian Elliott couldn’t stop.
Patrick Kane vs. three Calgary Flames, who do you think wins? #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/rLGQ2VPS1J
— Marina Molnar (@mkmolnar) November 2, 2016
Kane now has three goals and eight assists in 10 games this season. This is the most impressive score, though, considering the one-man effort he needed to make to put himself into a shooting area and snipe a perfect shot that went just under Elliott’s glove.
The reigning MVP made another stellar play in the third period to put the Blackhawks back ahead. With Chicago on the power play, Kane found Artem Anisimov with a beautiful pass after faking a shot. Anisimov just had to angle his stick the right way for his league-leading seventh goal of the season thanks to Kane’s pinpoint pass.
Tyler Motte helped put the game away in the third period with an impressive play that saw him kick the puck off his skate to his stick before firing it past Elliott to make the score 3-1.
Tyler Motte goal pic.twitter.com/vQF55Wm6bE
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 2, 2016
And then Artemi Panarin and Niklas Hjalmarsson REALLY put the game away with a pair of goals in the final minutes to make it 5-1. Panarin’s goal came on an empty-netter during 4-on-4 play with about three minutes left, then Hjalmarsson added one more once the game was already out of reach.
Goaltender Corey Crawford was really fantastic yet again. He had 31 saves on 32 attempts, which continues a very good run for him. Crawford has had a .961 save percentage over the past four games, during which Chicago has gone 3-0-1.
The Hawks next face the Colorado Avalanche at 7:30 p.m. CT on Thursday. It’s the first matchup between the Central Division rivals this season.