Jonathan Toews helps Chicago Blackhawks beat Calgary Flames 6-4
Jonathan Toews found the net twice, as the Chicago Blackhawks cruised past the Calgary Flames 6-4, at the United Centre on Wednesday night.
Michael Frolik scored a goal and had two assists, while Brian Campbell tallied a goal and an assist for Chicago, who extended their winning streak to six games. Goalie Corey Crawford made 21 saves in the win. Dave Bolland and Marian Hossa each also notched
a goal for the Blackhawks.
Toews stressed that despite their good run, the team were taking things a game at a time. He said, "We're not looking at it as a streak because we've been playing good for a while now. We're not going to look too far ahead. We'll use the momentum we've got
and keep working hard out there."
Jarome Iginla potted a goal and assisted twice, while Rene Bourque lit the lamp twice for Calgary, who were coming off a home-and-home sweep of the St. Louis Blues. Goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff was benched after allowing four goals on 19 shots. Henrik Karlsson
finished the game between the pipes, turning away 9-of-10 shots in the final frame. Alex Tanguay also added a goal in the losing effort.
Toews put the Blackhawks on the board for a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute of the opening stanza, while Tanguay tied the game at 1-1 on a power-play midway through the first period. Frolik put the Blackhawks ahead by 2-1 with one and a half minutes left
in the first frame. He tucked the puck in for his first goal in 32 play-offs.
Campbell then doubled the advantage at 3-1 with nearly five minutes to play in the middle frame, as he blasted a streaking one-timer from the top of the right circle. Toews then extended the lead to 4-1 with a nice individual effort a minute and a half later,
as he muscled across the slot and beat Kiprusoff with a screened shot.
However, Calgary came out hard in the final frame and made it a one-goal game.
The Flames cut the deficit in half at 4-2, just 84 seconds into the third period, as Bourque chipped the puck over Crawford from the low right side. Iginla then pulled Calgary to within another goal when he took a pass from Tanguay and one-timed it home
in the ninth minute of the final session.
Bolland netted an insurance goal to recover the Blackhawks’ two-goal edge at 5-3, just over two minutes later.
Calgary once again made it a one-goal game at 5-4 with four minutes left in the game. The goal came when Iginla ripped a slap shot from a sharp angle at the right side and it flew past Crawford over to the left, where Bourque knocked it home.
Flames later got Karlsson out of the net for the extra skater, but Hossa wrapped up the win at 6-4 with an empty-net goal.
Calgary Head Coach Brent Sutter was not satisfied with his side’s performance, as the Flames gave up several scoring chances. He said after the game, "We were not good defensively. We gave up over 20 scoring chances, and that's not good enough.”
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