Look out, NHL.
The Blackhawks seem to be hitting their stride.
In yet another dominating performance, the Hawks got goals from Ryan Hartman, Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane and waltzed out of Buffalo with an easy-as-pie 5-1 victory Sunday for their sixth win in seven tries.
One night after dropping a 3-1 decision to Edmonton at the United Center in which they basically dominated the entire game, the Hawks once again controlled the pace and gave their opponent very few scoring opportunities.
“I was super impressed with the way we played (against Edmonton),” Scott Darling told WGN Radio. “I thought their goalie (Cam Talbot) really won the game for them.
“Tonight, (goalie Robin) Lehner held the fort as long as he could; we were coming in waves and for a second you thought maybe it’d be another game like that. We finally broke through and the guys made some great plays and made my life pretty easy.”
The best play of this game — and perhaps of any across the league all day — came from Kane, who took a pass from Artemi Panarin at the right faceoff dot and proceeded to work his stickhandling magic on Lehner. The mesmerized goalie had no idea what was coming next and was helpless to stop Kane once he finally decided to take the puck to the net and tuck a backhander around Lehner’s left leg for the game’s final goal.
The hometown boy let out a primal scream and appeared to yell, “Showtime, baby!”
“I don’t even know what I was saying after that,” said Kane, who now has 20 or more goals in each of his 10 NHL seasons. “(You) kind of blackout in that moment. I was a little bit too jacked up for a 5-1 goal (laughs). It’s always fun to score in Buffalo.”
Anisimov’s goal three minutes earlier came when Kane’s pass deflected off his stick and past Lehner.
The best part for Hawks fans is that once again every line contributed and the team defense continues to improve.
Hartman started the scoring by potting his 14th goal of the season 13:34 into the first period.
Soon after, the Hawks killed off 88 seconds of 5-on-3 time for Buffalo with Richard Panik and Brian Campbell in the penalty box. Darling made several key saves, and Niklas Hjalmarsson blocked 3 of his 5 shots to preserve the 1-0 lead.
“It’s a big momentum swing,” Darling said. “We had some great blocks and kept everything pretty much to the outside (to) let me see it. It was a great PK all around.”
Buffalo did tie it at 1-1 on a goal by Evander Kane with just five seconds left in the first period, but the Hawks scored 4 unanswered goals and improved to 36-18-5.
Darling made 25 saves and improved to 14-5-2. Anisimov and Hossa now share the team lead with 21 goals. Toews’ score was his 12th overall and his fifth in the last 11 games.
The Hawks now travel to Minnesota for a Tuesday tilt in which they will attempt to shrink the Wild’s 7-point edge over them in the Central Division.
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