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Hawks Dial It Up In Third

December 15, 2014, 9:35 AM ET [123 Comments]
John Jaeckel
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The Blackhawks reversed course last night, taking over a game in the third period, after they'd lost their legs—and a game against the Islanders—in the third period the night before.

Brandon Saad was the game's first star, and deservedly so. It was Saad's energy and speed that seemed to give the Calgary Flames the most problems. But the entire team deserves credit for an important win to re-establish the tone that drove the 8-game winning streak that was snapped with Saturday night's loss.

The Flames put up a fight and the outcome was very much in doubt until the Hawks seemed to step it up a notch in the third. Both Hawk goals were set up by Jonathan Toews, the first a bang-bang power play marker by Patrick Sharp, and the second a sweet roof shot by Saad—a play made possible by a smart pass by Niklas Hjalmarsson.

The Hawks dominated in the faceoff dot, which translated into a fairly large shot margin.

New Hawk Tim Erixon was fine in 10+ minutes last night. Antti Raanta was solid in net, giving up one goal on an absolute blast in the slot from Jiri Hudler.

Now Raanta and Scott Darling wait to see which of them is sent down to Rockford when Corey Crawford returns—which looks to be soon. Darling has been a revelation and has been getting a long look from the coaching staff of late. But believe it or not, for the season, Raanta has the slightly better numbers.

Raanta is a good guy and teammate, who deserves better, but you get the feeling Darling will get the call to stay. That said, if the organization really feels that Darling would be the guy they'd ride if Crawford went down again, then maybe he would benefit more form number one minutes in Rockford.

The Wild come in to town tomorrow night and I'll have a preview. 'Til then, keep your heads up and your sticks on the ice.



JJ
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