Wednesday night the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in Anaheim 4-2. The Blackhawks led until 5:27 remained in the third period. In a period that had been dominated by the Blackhawks, the Ducks finally came alive. Bobby Ryan knocked in a rebound from Ryan Getzlaf’s shot to tie the game. One minute and 4 seconds later Teemu Selanne scored on another assist from Getzlaf, that put the Ducks ahead to stay. After the Blackhawks pulled their goalie in an effort to tie the score, Sheldon Souray finished off the game with an empty net goal.
With the win, the Ducks are now only 3 points behind, with one less game played, in the battle to clinch the top seed and home ice advantage in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks had a record-breaking start to the season, going 24 games without losing in regulation. A record that used to belong to the Ducks. Now they find themselves in a battle for not only the conference lead, but also the best record in the NHL, with the Pittsburgh Penguins just 5 points behind the Blackhawks, although they have played one extra game. Chicago started the season 21-0-3, with one of those overtime losses being against the Ducks in Chicago. These 2 teams play again in Chicago a week from Friday.
Once the Ducks took the lead in the game Wednesday, the Blackhawks seemed to get desperate. With 4:17 left in the game, Brandon Bollig smacked the Ducks’ Andrew Cogliano in the mouth with a high stick, knocking out 2 teeth, right after a face-off. However, like a hockey player, Cogliano went in for treatment and was out long before the remaining time had expired. Even though Cogliano was bleeding, the referees didn’t call a penalty at all. A double minor should have been called against Boolig, which would have given the Ducks 4 minutes of penalty time. It didn’t matter though. Even after the cowardly flop by Jonathan Toews, that didn’t draw a penalty, the Ducks played good defense, and finally ended the scoring with the empty net goal.
Ever since the great start, which lasted exactly half of the strike shortened season, the Blackhawks are 3-3-0. They were missing Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp against the Ducks, but Anaheim was missing Corey Perry, who was still serving a 4 game suspension for his hit on the Minnesota Wild’s Jason Zucker. Can the Blackhawks regain the dominance that they showed in the first half of the season, or is their hold on the top spot in the Western Conference dwindling away? The Ducks have a 12 point lead over the rest of the conference for the second seed, so even if the Blackhawks do lose the top spot, they will certainly end up second, without a total collapse. I don’t see any sort of collapse happening.
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