Dark Spot on the Blackhawks Bright Season

Written by: EricC on 26th March 2010

Needless to say, this is one game the Chicago Blackhawks would like to forget. After defeating one of the Western Conference’s best teams, the Phoenix Coyotes, the Blackhawks should have had no trouble taking the Columbus Blue Jackets down. Unfortunately, this was not the case in Thursday night’s 8-3 loss, where the Hawks trailed for nearly the entire 60 minutes. The only bright spots to come out of the game were that Chicago has now clinched the playoffs, Tomas Kopecky got a NHL career high with seven goals, and Adam Burish got his first goal of the season.

Columbus wasted no time, putting a goal in during the first 32 seconds of the game; a smart play by the struggling team, trying to break Chicago’s confidence early. During the 12th minute, the Blue Jackets made it a two goal lead, ending the first period 2-0. Two minutes into the second period, Kris Versteeg brought the Hawks back into this game with his 17th goal of the season. Unfortunately, this is the point when the team began to break down.

Less than three minutes after Versteeg’s goal, Columbus extended the gap again. In the 11th minute, the Blue Jackets were awarded a Penalty Shot, which they successfully sank in the back of the net. Three minutes later, the Blue Jackets put another one in, at which point Cristobal Huet was switched out with Antti Niemi; however, during the final minutes of the second period, Niemi let the sixth goal past.

Coming into the third period, Huet was put back in net. In the first four minutes he gave up two more goals, the first during a Blue Jackets Power Play. Down 8-1, the Blackhawks were pretty much out of this game. They may have made that big comeback for the win against Calgary earlier in the season, but it was hard to believe that would happen again, with an even greater deficit. However, Chicago did manage to save a little face with two more goals before the game could come to an end. The first came from Kopecky during a Power Play in the fifth minute, and the second was from Burish during the 15th minute.

Huet got the start against the Blue Jackets in an attempt to give him some practice before the playoffs, although Niemi has really shown more dominance in the net for the Hawks, in this second half of the season. If this game was supposed to be a confidence booster for Huet, it definitely ended up being the opposite. Making only 20 saves, Huet gave up seven goals during his time in the net, while Niemi had four saves and an allowed goal.

The Blackhawks will get a chance to prove their dominance over the Blue Jackets one more time this season. This Sunday, March 28, the Hawks take on Columbus in Chicago. The puck will drop at 6:00 P.M. CT.