Chicago Blackhawks Keep Rolling in 5-3 Win over Toronto Maple Leafs

The atmosphere was lively before the puck dropped at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night. Many fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs were surely excited to be back on the bandwagon as the Buds were now in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
 

The Leafs came out fired up for the first shift and nearly scored as fans chanted “Go Leafs Go” from the opening faceoff. But the visiting Chicago Blackhawks quickly silenced the crowd after a three-goal first period outburst and solid goaltending from rookie Corey Crawford en route to a 5-3 win.

The first period proved to be the difference in the game as the Leafs made far too many mistakes and rookie sensation James Reimer looked shaky in the early going.

“They made us pay with turnovers,” said Leafs Head Coach Ron Wilson. “They took advantage of our own mistakes. With a team like that, especially in the first period, can’t make those kinds of mistakes.”

“It’s a good experience for us to play one of the better teams in the league right now and see what we have to do to get better.”

For the first time in ten games, the Leafs (29-28-9) did not earn a point but still remain four behind the eighth-place Hurricanes for the final playoff spot.

Added Wilson, “It’s awful idiotic to say we’re going to win every game the rest of the way. So I have no problem with the game tonight. We’ll move on to the next one and learn our lessons and get better.”

Goal-scorer Joffrey Lupul also remained positive of the team’s playoff chances.

“We’re going into every game expecting to win,” said Lupul. “So any loss is going to be tough to take, but realistically, if you think about it, we weren’t going to win the last 17 or 18 games of the year. Chalk this up as one of those losses and makes the next game that much more important.”

“We’re in a situation where can’t go on a two or three game skid or you’re going to put yourself on in the hole we just climbed out of. We got to stop the bleeding, can’t turn into one of those things. We’ll be ready to go next game.”

The game featured two of the NHL’s best teams since the all-star break but it became evident early that Chicago is playing at a much higher level. They displayed glimpses of the Stanley Cup winning team from last season. After a slow start the team is coming together at the right time.

The Blackhawks (37-23-6) extended their season-high winning streak to eight games and were also playing back-to-back after defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 at home last night.

With the win they remain in fourth place in the Western Conference. It wasn’t very long ago that Chicago was on the outside of the playoff picture, but the winning streak has vaulted them out of the logjam in the Western Conference.

One of the reasons for Chicago’s resurgence has been the play of Crawford who has taken over number one goalie status from veteran Marty Turco. Turco was brought in to replace last year’s hero, Antti Niemi, but struggled and now finds himself as the backup. Crawford was sharp when he needed to be in the second and third periods, making 30 saves for his 26^th win of the season and was named the game’s first star.

Toronto was simply unable to recover from an awful first period where the Blackhawks capitalized on Leafs mistakes to jump out to a 3-0 lead before the end of the first period.

Just over a minute into the game, Carl Gunnarsson made a horrible giveaway by throwing the puck up the middle to Blackhawks sniper Marian Hossa. Hossa moved into the slot and fired the puck between the legs of Luke Schenn and Reimer to make it 1-0.

Three minutes later Phil Kessel turned the puck over at the Blackhawks blue-line and resulted in a two-on-one the other way. Troy Brouwer passed across to Michael Frolik who fired the puck just inside the far post to increase the lead to 2-0.

Chicago would add another goal before the end of the first period on a textbook hockey play. It looked as though the Blackhawks were running a drill in practice. All five players touched the puck and Jonathan Toews snuck in the backdoor to re-direct a pass from Patrick Kane to make it 3-0.

Lupul got the Leafs on the board at 7:28 of the second period. After intercepting a pass, Lupul drove to the net while holding off two Blackhawks and shot the puck over the glove of Crawford to make it 3-1. The goal seemed to awaken the crowd who had been quiet since the opening faceoff.

Chicago added two more goals before the end of the second period to squash any thoughts of a Leafs comeback. Viktor Stalberg tipped in a shot to score against his former team and Bryan Bickell tapped in a rebound off a 2-on-1 to make it 5-1.

Wilson replaced Reimer with Jean-Sebastien Giguere to start the third period. The Leafs did show more energy in the final frame and were rewarded early as Joey Crabb tipped in a Schenn point shot to make it 5-2.

Just over a minute later, Mikhail Grabovski was tripped up on a partial breakaway and was rewarded with a penalty shot. Grabovski started wide and cut in on Crawford and nearly tucked it in. But Crawford managed to keep the puck out with his left pad and kept the score at 5-2.

Moments later, Mike Brown picked off an errant pass and skated in all alone, but Crawford stoned the Leafs forward point-blank for another huge save. The complexion of the game would have changed had Grabovski and Brown scored, as over 12 minutes were still left in the game.

Schenn added a goal in the final minute to close out the scoring.

The Leafs will now travel to New York to take on the Islanders on Tuesday night. The puck will drop at 7pm at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

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