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Emery Earns Two Points as Hawks beat Flames in TiddlyWinks

Ray Emery lead the Blackhawks to their 7th victory in 9 games so far this season by making 45 stops against the Flames and shutting down all three Flames shooters in the shootout (with a little help from his post on Iginla’s try).

The Hawks were outplayed for pretty much all of the game getting out shot 47 to 19. They seemed sluggish and that’s probably due to it being their second game in as many night’s and traveling. But Emery was able to keep the Hawks in the game holding the Flames scoreless through over 40 minutes of hockey.

Patrick Kane broke the scoreless deadlock 4:08 into the 3rd off a Patrick Sharp rebound, Shaw earning a secondary assist.

Flames squandered a few chances, including Mikael Backlund seeming to miss a wide open net, but were able to draw even on a power play when Duncan Keith was called for delay of game for dislodging the net.

Denis Wideman took a shot that deflected off of Brent Seabrook’s foot and slid past Emery to tie the game at one 13:23 into the third.

The game seemed destined to go into overtime tied at one but some late game scoring almost handed the Hawks their first regulation loss of the season.

Jay Bouwmeester scored late on an odd man rush where he was the trailer, he received the pass from Jurri Hudler and snapped a shot past Emery. There was only 35 seconds left in the game and it looked like Emery’s solid night was going to go unrewarded. But we have Marian Hossa and the Flames don’t.

With Emery pulled, and seconds dwindling, Jonathan Toews was able to battle for the puck deep in the Flames zone, winning it and moving it to Patrick Kane. Kane played a quick game of catch with Nick Leddy who was moving along the blue line. Kane received it back from Leddy then slide a pass cross ice to Johnny Oduya through a couple of defenders. Oduya received the pass and looked for Sharp in the middle, the puck bounced to Hossa who was able to corral it and hit a wrister past Miikka Kiprusoff to tie the game with just over 3 seconds left in the game.

The game headed to overtime and the Hawks avoided giving up a goal while killing a powerplay for a Brandon Saad slash.

The Flames went first in the shoot-out and Emery was able to keep all three shooters out of the net.

Toews opened for the Hawks and was stopped by Kiprusoff. Kane went next and was able to slip the puck five hole on a nifty forehand backhand move and thankfully we didn’t have to go through the drama of who would have been the Hawks third shooter.

Thoughts:

Hawks PK while giving up a goal last night is still looking strong. The power play while only getting one opportunity last night seems to be returning to its clownshoes state.

Hawks were outplayed most of the game and you could blame it on the back to back or the travel or just having to play the Flames, but Emery seemed like the only one who was into it until late and luckily he was able to keep them in it.

Brandon Bollig had another seemingly pointless fight but at least in this one he was able to do some damage on the Flames’ Tim Jackman. I was out watching the game at the local BWW and it drew quite the round of applause. It was a decent scrap but I still fail to see the point of Brandon Bollig.

Take advantage of these next two days and get some rest. With the 7-0-1 Sharks coming up Tuesday and Phoenix, with Raffi Torres, Thursday it is looking like it’s going to be a tough week.

Hawks lead the entire NHL with 16 points, tough to complain about too much.

Talking Points