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Blackhawks Come Out on Top of Predators in the End

Written by: EricC on 28th December 2009

The Chicago Blackhawks played their sixth, and final, game against the Nashville Predators Sunday night, taking them down with a last minute goal by Patrick Kane. The Hawks came out on top with a 4-2 record against the Preds, despite enduring some tough games. Chicago had seven Division Rivalry games in December, claiming a victory in all but one of those games.

After enduring a loss at home the night before, the Predators were out for revenge. Only a minute and a half into the game, Nashville put a goal in. However, only about five minutes later, Kane tied up the score. Kane put a pass in front of the net, but while several players converged on it, he swooped in and put it past the goalie.

Only 47 seconds into the second period, Nashville took the lead again. 15 shots were exchanged in the second period, but the Predators had the only goal. By the end of the second period, the score was only 2-1, but that would soon change.

During the sixth minute of the third period, while the Predators were drawn on the Blackhawks side, Andrew Ladd launched the puck down the ice to John Madden, who was alone at Nashville’s side of the ice. One on one, Madden made a quick move and then gently tapped the puck between the goalie’s legs. Only about six minutes later, Madden got a second goal in much of the same fashion, with the pass coming from Bryan Bickell this time. A little over a minute later, Brian Campbell pounded in a long shot during a Power Play to give the Hawks a two goal lead.

With five minutes left in the game, it looked like the Blackhawks were going to chalk up back to back wins against the Predators. Unfortunately, Nashville managed to put two more goals in, a minute apart from each other. With the score tied up again, the Blackhawks hopes of ending this thing in regular time looked like they had vanished. However, with less than a minute to play, Kane took a shot from the side of the net, caught the rebound, and smashed it again, to put in the game winning goal.

Antti Niemi, who has had some pretty amazing games, had one of his worst of the season. Despite the Blackhawks win, he managed to give up four goals, two of them during the final five minutes of play. Only saving 16 shots, Niemi’s Save Percentage dropped a little to 92.7%.

The Blackhawks only have two more games left before the New Year. The next one will be against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, December 29, at 7:00 P.M. CT.