Hawks Move On!

Blackhawks Finish Blues

Crawford helps Hawks Surpass Blues
source: articles.chicagotribune.com

The Chicago Blackhawks have now taken 4 games in a row, and have defeated the mighty St. Louis Blues. An incredible series played by both teams, but the Blues could't stop the Hawks offense. What seemed to be a struggle for the first two games, turned into a Chicago Blackhawks momentum swing on their home ice. The Blackhawks have always played well at home, and they surely showed their home ice advantage by winning all 3 home games and only one away. Carrying the momentum through the games 3 & 4 wins, the Hawks were able to go back to St. Louis and devastate the crowd with a 3-2 overtime win. The Hawks then went on a scoring rampage in game 5 at the United Center. Scoring 5 goals, the offense was the best that the team had seen throughout the entire series. Not wanting to head back to St. Louis for a game 6, the Blackhawks played well in every aspect of the matchup. While it seemed the Hawks would be doomed early in the series, one man who deserves credit for keeping the team alive was goaltender Corey Crawford. Although letting up a few must have goals, Crawford certainly showed he has what it takes to help this team move on.

While the game proved to be close matchup through 2 periods,  Toews would then rally his team with a wrist shop, followed by goals from Patrick Sharp, Andrew Shaw, and Duncan Keith. While the Hawks offense gain a tremendous amount of confidence in the third, they will need to pick up the pace if they want to surpass their next opponent in round 2. One thing I would wish the Hawks could improve on is getting pucks to the net. With forwards like Andrew Shaw and Bryan Bickell who have a strong net presence, the Hawks could really capitalize on putting everything and anything on the net. As seen late in the game and throughout the series, the Hawks make plays when the puck gets to the opponents net. Another thing the Hawks must definitely work on is their enormous amount of penalties taken. Unlike the Chicago Blackhawks throughout the season, they have continuously been taking bad penalties that have luckily not been taken advantage of by the Blues offense.

The Blackhawks are definitely a team to keep an eye on for the Stanley Cup run, and will certainly give their next opponent a physical battle. The Hawks are the only Western Conference team to have clinched their second round spot thus far, and will await for the announcement of their opponent. Ether way, we can expect the Hawks to continue practice as normal and prepare for the next series.

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