The Blackhawks went into Atlanta, Georgia Wednesday night to face the Thrashers following an embarrassing 7-3 loss to the Canucks last Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia. The game marked their first defeat of the season to a Canadian team (the Hawks defeated Calgary 5-2 two days ago).

However, after battling to the very end, the Hawks were able to edge out the Thrashers with a 3-1 victory.
 

The Thrashers have been one of the sadder additions to the National Hockey League. Since their inception in 1999, they have only made the playoffs once (2006-07), more often than not finishing near the bottom of the Eastern Conference. This year is no different. The Thrashers sit comfortably in 14th place in the conference; only the New York Islanders have a worse overall record. Still, judging from the way they played against the Blackhawks, their future may be getting a little brighter.

Sharp goaltending kept the score at 0-0 until deep into the second period. Both Nikolai Khabibulin and Atlanta’s Kari Lehtonen were outstanding. Neither goalie allowed their team to fall behind. The first goal of the game was not until 14:06 of the second when Patrick Sharp scored his 23rd of the season off a pass from Brian Campbell while on the power play (Niclas Hävelid, slashing, 13:33).

Ilya Kovalchuk evened the score with a power-play goal late in the second by blasting a shot through traffic for the Thrashers (18:05; Adam Burish, roughing, 17:30).

Twenty-one seconds later, the Hawks responded with another power play goal.

Lehtonen deflected Patrick Kane’s slap shot directly to Jonathan Toews in front of the net. Toews forced the puck through to put the Hawks up 2-1 (18:26; (Vyacheslav Kozlov, tripping, 18:14).

The second period did not end there. With less than 10 seconds left in the period, Kane and Toews almost connected again. Unfortunately, Toews whiffed on the rebound. Atlanta’s Kovalchuk alertly played the clock and rushed the length of the ice on a breakaway. Khabibulin blocked Kovalchuk’s blast from inside the blue line with just over one second left. The speedy Kovalchuk somehow played the rebound, and slapped the back of the net from the sideboards past a sprawled out Khabibulin as the horn rang. The red lamp lit, the Thrashers celebrated, the crowd danced, the referees consulted with the people upstairs. After reviewing the replay, it was not ruled as a goal; the puck clearly went in after the clock had struck zero—the difference half a second can make.

The third period started as the second ended.

Just over a minute in, Brian Campbell turned the puck over in the Hawks’ zone. Kozlov connected with Joe Motzko in front of the net. As he shot, blue and white bodies crashed into him and Khabibulin. The puck disappeared briefly under the commotion and reappeared behind Khabibulin as the net fell off its moorings. The referee on the ice called “no goal.” Just before the resulting face-off, the refs were called to the scoring box. After another review, the call on the ice stood, the Hawks remained in the lead.

The Blackhawks survived the third thanks entirely to Khabibulin’s goaltending. He made all the big stops when the Hawks needed them,. He denied all 16 of Atlanta’s third period shots (36 saves for the game).

The game ended with Atlanta on the power play (Sharp, hooking, 18:43). With the goalie on the bench, the Hawks successfully fended off a two-man disadvantage. Dave Bolland put an empty netter in with 10 seconds left to solidify the win.

The Blackhawks did not play their best hockey, and conversely Atlanta played some of their finest. The same problems plaguing the Blackhawks all season long keep resurfacing.

Face-offs nearly killed the Hawks; they won only 16 out of 50 (32 percent). The importance of face-offs is an often-overlooked aspect of the game; the Hawks lucked out against Atlanta.

Turnovers in the zone and clearing the zone were problems again for the Hawks. Campbell turned the puck over there numerous times, one of which almost resulted in a goal. The rest of the time, Khabibulin was there as he has been all season. Wednesday’s game marked Khabibulin’s 18th game (of 29) where he gave up two goals or less.

With the 3-1 win over the Thrashers, the Blackhawks are now 5-2-0 on the road trip. The final game of their eight-game trip is on Friday night against the St. Louis Blues. The Hawks then return to the United Center on Saturday night for a Valentine’s Day showdown versus the Dallas Stars.

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