Chicago Blackhawks edge St. Louis Blues 4-3 in shootout -NHL Update
Chicago Blackhawks got a much needed win to counter against two straight losses to Nashville Predators and New Jersey Devils, edging top Western Conference team, St. Louis Blues, 4-3, in a shootout on Thursday night, March 29, 2012, at the jam-packed United
Center in Chicago, Illinois.
It was an eccentric environment in the United Center as fans could hardly wait for the game to start and it was easy to see that they were all prepared for their home team to go into the playoffs strong.
Dave Bolland emerged as the saviour for Chicago as the Blues kept pushing the Blackhawks at every chance they could get while Jaroslav Halak, the St. Louis goalie, would not budge in net until Bolland arrived that is.
"You've got 20,000 fans screaming," Bolland said about the deciding shootout attempt. "You're thinking of so many moves in your head. For me, it was go down and whatever came to my head, try to put it in. You're not really sure. Should I shoot? Should I
deke? Should I just bury my head and put it through him. Halak's a good goalie."
Bryan Bickell kicked off the scoring with his ninth of the year midway through the first while Alexander Steen levelled it just nine seconds later.
Chicago attempted to rally in order to take the match in round-three of the intense competition as Andrew Brunette and Patrick Sharp scored two back-to-back goals, making it 3-1 nearly midway through.
Surprisingly, St. Louis countered back with two of their own sponsored by Jason Arnott and David Perron to force the overtime extension with less than two minutes left on the clock.
St. Louis might not have won the match but getting that one point for heading out of regulation was still an achievement for them.
"I still think it's big point for us this time of year and we'll take it. The way we played at the point when it was 3-1, I'm not sure that we'd get one (point), but we battled back and finally got one," Perron said.
Chicago Blackhawks now have the next against Nashville Predators, a team that dominated them 6-1 less than a week ago, on Saturday. St. Louis Blues will be hosting Columbus Blue Jackets on the same day and will be going for the easy win.
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