The Chicago Blackhawks controlled the play for nearly the entire
game against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, but still fell
short.
Evgeni Nabokov made 45 saves and Joe Thornton and Dany
Heatley each had a goal and an assist to lead the Sharks to their
third straight win, 3-2 over Chicago.
Jason Demers also scored for the Sharks, who moved ahead of
the Blackhawks into first place in the Western Conference, and
snapped Chicago's four-game overall and five-game home winning
streaks.
Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa each had a goal and an assist
for the Blackhawks, who outshot the Sharks 47-14.
"We didn't have many chances, so we were lucky to create
enough to win the game," San Jose coach Todd McLellan said.
"Certainly when you look at it in the big picture, we didn't play
near well-enough.
"We basically robbed one here tonight and we can chalk that
one up to Nabby."
Nabokov lost a shutout bid early in the third when Kane
finally scored on the Blackhawks' 34th shot to make it 2-1.
"We let Nabby do all the work," Demers said. "We can't let
him do that every game. He's human, too."
Chicago's puck-possession game was aided by seven power
plays. That helped boost the Blackhawks' shot total, but they
failed to convert any of the chances and allowed a short-handed
score by Thornton.
"Taking all the penalties slowed us down, but we battled,"
Nabokov said. "We needed our big guys to score, and they did."
San Jose capitalized on Chicago's mistakes to avenge 4-3 and
7-2 losses to the Blackhawks in November.
McLellan had reassembled a line of top forwards Heatley,
Thornton and Patrick Marleau to help spark San Jose to a 4-2 win at
Dallas on Monday. McLellan kept the trio together against Chicago
and it paid off.
"They scored two big goals and set up the winner," McLellan
said. "They contributed with the penalty killing. Without them we'd
have no offense."
Chicago's Cristobal Huet made 11 saves, but his shutout
streak ended at 143:31 when Heatley opened the scoring 3:18 into
the first. Huet had 3-0 shutouts in his two previous starts.
Huet had not permitted a goal since Buffalo's Clarke
MacArthur beat him late in the second period of the Sabres' 2-1 win
on Dec. 11.
"We outshot them, but we couldn't create the top, top
chances," Hossa said. "We tried to shoot from bad angles and chaos
in front of the net, but their goalie played well.
"We have to learn from this," he added. "We have to be more
poised with the puck and trust each other more."
San Jose's three-game winning streak comes on the heels of an
0-2-3 slide, its longest winless slump this season.
The Blackhawks outshot the Sharks 15-4 in the first, but
trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes. Heatley put San Jose ahead early when
he slipped around Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook, took Dan
Boyle's feed and beat Huet with a high shot on the short side.
In the second period, Chicago outshot San Jose 11-3, but the
Sharks took a 2-0 lead on Thornton's short-handed goal at 5:10.
Thornton is the NHL's leading scorer.
San Jose's Joe Pavelski picked off a pass by Chicago's Kris
Versteeg at center ice, and then moved in on a 2-on-1 break with
Thornton. Pavelski slipped a pass to Thornton, who lofted a rising
shot over Huet's left shoulder.
Kane cut it to 2-1 at 4:10 of the third to end Nabokov's bid
for a third shutout this season.
Hossa dug the puck out of the left corner, centered it and
Kane knocked it in from a goal-mouth scramble.
Just 20 seconds later, Demers made it 3-1 following a Chicago
coverage breakdown. Set up by Thornton's pass, Demers beat Huet on
the glove side with a high shot from the slot.
Hossa slipped in a goal from a sharp angle during a 4-on-4
with 1:51 left in the third to cut it to 3-2.
Notes: The Blackhawks have converted just three of their past
36 power-play chances. ... Huet's longest personal shutout streak
is 173:30, set over four games with Montreal in February 2006. His
previous back-to-back shutouts were in March 2006 with the
Canadiens. ... Chicago D Cam Barker missed his second game with a
lower-body injury and LW Ben Eager missed his third with an
upper-body injury. ... San Jose RW Brad Staubitz missed his 14th
game with a facial injury. ... D Jay Leach was a healthy scratch.
