The Blackhawks capped off the 2011 year with a victory. As nice as that might be in itself, the bigger deal is the fact that it came against the Detroit Red Wings.
Meeting for the first time of the six they will meet from now until the end of the regular season, the Hawks battled back from being down a goal twice and managed to ensure that players and fans alike would have a very happy new year.
The Wings got on the board first, courtesy of Justin Abdelkader, but it wouldn’t be long before the captain had his say. On a breakaway, Jonathan Toews was hooked by Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom, which awarded him a penalty shot. Toews made it look effortless as he put the puck past Jimmy Howard and evened things up at one.
Detroit took the lead again in the second, this one coming from a Todd Bertuzzi goal. But Marian Hossa continued his torrid run with a goal to even things up at two.
In the third period, the Blackhawks finally grabbed their first lead of the game. Brent Seabrook ripped one past Howard to give the Hawks the lead permanently.
That’s the basic scoring summary, but there’s plenty in this one that you needed to look past the final score to see.
Jimmy Hayes made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks on Friday, after Brandon Pirri was assigned to Rockford. He skated with the fourth line and was very solid, tying for the team lead in hits, with four, in eight minutes of ice time. I’d say there’s a great chance we’ll see him again on Monday.
The power play was bad. The Hawks went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, but the penalty kill did kill off the only penalty they had to deal with on the night.
Corey Crawford was very strong again. He made 26 saves on the night and took a pretty nice beating, with a couple of goalie interference calls against the Red Wings in this one.
Dan Carcillo returned to the lineup and skated for 10:26. He kept his promise on coming back physical, with four hits on the night and a nice little bout with Bertuzzi.
The Hawks will have the weekend off to ring in the new year, before hosting the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
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