Blackhawks rally against Sharks, win 4-3 in OT

The Blackhawks and Sharks are only a month and a half into the 2009-2010 NHL season, but Sunday night’s matchup had all the skill, power and intensity of a Stanley Cup playoff game. And if this game is any indication, these two current division leaders could have one epic series battle.

The opening goal of the game was scored by the most improbable of lines. Jordan Hendry, playing wing on the fourth line with Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ebbett scratched, worked the puck out of the corner and passed it back to Brent Sopel at the right point. Sopel fired a warning flare of a shot, but this effort beat Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov. Bryan Bickell, called up from Rockford before the game, played an intrigal part of the goal on his first shift of the game. Bickell, who earns his paycheck in front of the net, streaked in front of Nabokov and screened the goaltender from seeing Sopel’s shot. The early play of Bickell forced Joel Quenneville to take notice; soon there after, Bickell was moved up to play wing with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. The goal was Sopel’s first of the season and 42nd of his 533 game NHL career.

The Hawks’ lead would not last long. Dany Heatley scored the equalizing tally ten minutes later. Taking a backhand pass from Joe Thorton at the goalline, Heatley fired his remarkable wristshot from the top of the right wing circle. Cristobal Huet stood little chance against the elite shot of Heatley.

While the Hawks lead didn’t last long, the tie evaporated and then the deficit exacerbated far faster. Early in the second the Sharks showed the offensive abracadabra that has put them in the NHL points giving themselves a two goal lead in 45 seconds. Jason Demers scored his first NHL goal 1:14 into the second period to tie the game. Demers, a rookie who was drafted 186th overall in 2008, picked up a puck that was deflected in the slot and one-timed it past Huet. The unassisted goal was yet to be announced when Patrick Marleau scored the Sharks’ third goal and a 3-1 lead. A centering pass from Joe Pavelski found a streaking Marleau who was able to skate past an aggressive Huet to bury the puck into the open net. The second period started 1-1, two minutes into the middle frame it was 3-1 San Jose. All seemed bleak in Chicago.

But the Blackhawks switched up the lines and started chipping away at the San Jose lead. Patrick Sharp shifted to center, Bryan Bickell moved up to the Toews and Kane line and Tomas Kopecky, who started the game at center, moved back to the fourth line wing. The moves worked.

Just past the game’s halfway point, the best shift of the game was turned in by Jonathan Toews, Bryan Bickell and Duncan Keith. It created several scoring chances for the Blackhawks, and Patrick Kane finished the forecheck off with a goal. Kane was set up by a fantastic pass from Toews, working behind the net, and beat Nabokov gloveside.

Andrew Ladd helped tie the score before the end of the second period when he took a pass at the Sharks’ blueline and drove in on Nabokov, who made the initial point-blank save. Giving up a rebound, Ladd tried again from the side of the net, but a flailing Nabokov made a second save. John Madden, never one to stop before the whistle, skated through all five San Jose skaters to pick up the second rebound. He finished the job and tied the game at 3-3.

The third period was full of scoring chances and missed opportunities, as each team hit the red pipe twice and were unable to convert on their respective powerplays. The game headed to overtime.

It only took one shift to finalize the game. Jonathan Toews, Troy Brouwer, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith started the 4-on-4 period for the Blackahwks and would end it as well. An initial chance by Brouwer was turned aside by Nabokov, but again, Toews refused to give up on the forecheck. Toews’ dirty work on the endboards earned him the puck, and he skated out to in front of the net, and hit an activated Brent Seabrook with a tape-to-tape pass. Nabokov dove to stop the Seabrook shot, but to no avail. Seabrook now has two goals this season, both of them overtime winners.

Feathers in the Headdress:

Third Star: Niklas Hjalmarsson
Duncan Keith has played himself into the NHL elite, but this season, its hard to say that Keith is, hands down, the Blackhawks’ best defensive d-man. The play of Niklas Hjalmarsson has been that outstanding in the season’s first 19 games. Hjalmarsson has four points this season, hardly elite, but as the campaign has progressed, he has gotten more and more icetime, and has been solid enough to allow Brian Campbell to free-wheel. That free-wheeling has defensive ramifications, but Hjalmarsson has been able to handle the defensive work of two men when the counter-attack scenario arises, as it did Sunday. Hjalmarsson is calm under pressure, physical and extremely skilled defensively. Questions swirl about Keith’s pending restricted free agency, but Hjalmarsson is proving no less vital to the Blackhawks success this season and he too is a pending restricted free agent.

Second Star Star: Bryan Bickell
Bickell has been unable to stick with the parent club this season, but he might have earned himself a second straight game as a Blackhawk with his performance on Sunday. While some might call the +/- a flawed stat, tonight it was very representative of Bickell’s performance. A +2 on the evening, Bickell played the role of Troy Brouwer for Toews and Kane, as he made space for them to work and made the goaltender’s life miserable. He was a game changer who appeared to be in his element at all times against the best team in the NHL. And while every game by Bickell might not be as impactfull, he might be turning up the heat on Dustin Byfuglien, who was outplayed and replaced by a last minute callup.

First Star: Jonathan Toews
Toews was some sort of magic tonight. The captain had two razzle-dazzle assists that helped carried his team back from a two-goal deficit and beat the best team in the league. The kid has eyes in the back of his head, but is willing to do the work in the corners to keep plays alive. And when plays stay alive, Jonathan Toews usually ends them in celebration. Toews’ first assist was an example of just that. The play started against a long shifted Sharks defense. Despite two great chances being turned away by Nabokov, Toews kept the play alive and disassembled the remains of the tired opponent with a nifty fake and pass from behind the net that found Kane and thereafter the back of the net. There are no apparent ill-effects from the concussion that knocked Toews out of commission, and that is the best news Blackhawks fans could hear and see short of a contract extension.