Blackhawks Vs Isles Recap: About Time!

After two bad wins, the Blackhawks welcomed the New York Islanders to the United Center for the first of two games in two days at the UC. On the night the US Soccer team beat Jamaica and clinched first place in the CONCACAF qualifiers, the Blackhawks recovered from their two-game losing streak to beat the Islanders 3-2.

There was a change in the line-up tonight. One-time Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin was placed in goal, presumably to give Corey Crawford some time to rest. Given how Crawford's had a rough couple of games, I can believe that Crawford appreciated the time off. Quenneville also played with the lines, putting Bryan Bickell on the third line and put Andrew Shaw on the second line. Michal Handzus was also placed on the fourth line at center. Brandon Saad joined Kane and Toews on the first line.

The Blackhawks struck first as rookie Joakim Nordstrom put the Hawks up at 9:32 in the first period. It was the first NHL goal for the Swedish Hawk Mafia's newest member. Then the Captain, Jonathan Toews, put the Hawks up 2-0 a couple minutes later.

But the Islanders took advantage of the Hawks' defensive weakness and scored two unanswered goals near the end of the first period. Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo both scored 2 minutes and 56 seconds apart and Okposo's goal came with 4.8 ticks remaining in the first period.

Thankfully, the Hawks regrouped and prevented any more goals. Khabibulin stopped 17 of 19 shots total in the game. Michal Handzus put the Hawks up for good at 6:45 in the second period. This time, the Hawks killed every penalty that came afterwards after three games of a bad penalty kill.

This was the game I had been waiting for! The Hawks did not panic after giving up those two goals in the first period. But, they need to stop giving up goals in bulk, so there's plenty to work on. As for Khabibulin, he's still the Bulin Wall of old, and tonight was win t'ree t'irdy t'ree for him. I think this win was a small, but important step towards repeating a Cup championship. They felt like they'd been robbed of three points in the last two games, so to get both points was big. They play the Buffalo Sabers tomorrow night at 7:00.

In other updates, the Hawks have recalled Brandon Pirri from Rockford and sent Jimmy Hayes down to Rockford. Pirri should play tomorrow night.