After struggling during the first three games of their current four-game home stand, the Chicago Blackhawks bounced back in a huge way on Monday night, demolishing the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 7-2. Chicago’s goals were scored by seven different players, with four of them coming on the power play.
The Blackhawks’ offense got started early in this one, as Brandon Mashinter got the team on the board after just two and a half minutes of action. The goal came on a slick shot from the Hawks big bodied enforcer, beating Toronto goalie James Reimer glove side. Later in the period, with the Hawks on the power play, Andrew Shaw jammed the puck home after a scrum in front of the net to give Chicago a 2-0 lead.
The second period saw a lot more Chicago dominance, as they controlled the puck and the play for most of the middle frame. Brent Seabrook scored the second PPG of the night just shy of two minutes into the period, extending the Hawks lead to 3-0. There would be no more scoring in the frame, and the Hawks took that lead into the third.
The third period is when things got really interesting. Chicago went on the power play early in the frame, and Artemi Panarin cashed in to make the lead 4-0. Then, 2:41 later, Patrick Kane ripped a shot past Reimer to make the lead 5-0. Six minutes after that, Teuvo Teravainen ripped home a one-timer from the right circle for a 5-on-3 goal, and it was 6-0. THEN, just 1:41 later, Viktor Svedberg (yes, you read that right), finished off a feed from Jonathan Toews to go to 7-0.
The Leafs would come back and get goals from Mark Arcobello and P.A. Parenteau to limit the damage, but the fat lady was already done singing at that point. The Blackhawks are a good team and the Leafs are a bad one, and that was very evident on Monday at the United Center.
While normally this may not seem like a big win — Toronto is certainly a team the Blackhawks expect to beat — given the way the team had been struggling of late, it certainly felt good to see the Haws get a win like this. Several players stepped up in big ways, including goaltender Scott Darling who made several 35 saves and was chosen as the game’s third star. Darling’s big diving stop in the second period could go down as one of the most impressive saves of the season.
Goaltending insanity.
Watch this.https://t.co/yJNp16iCVD
— NHL (@NHL) February 16, 2016
It was also great to see Teravainen get a goal, as his play had been lackluster of late. Hopefully that opens the floodgates for him.
Kane starred again, though, as the NHL’s leading point scorer was on fire yet again, notching his 34th goal of the season in addition to three assists to up his point total to 82. Kane was the game’s first star, and was serenaded with “MVP” chants by the United Center crowd after the game.
The Blackhawks next game is Wednesday, when they’ll head to Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Rangers as a part of NBCSN’s Wednesday Night Rivalry. Puck drop for that one is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT.
Adam Hess is a staff writer at Second City Hockey. You can follow him on Twitter at @_adamhess.