Blackhawks 3 Flames 2
CHICAGO — Jonathan Toews scored two of Chicago’s three second-period goals as the Blackhawks rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference quarter-final series.
Toews’ second goal of the period came on a rebound with only 24 seconds remaining as Chicago erased an early 2-0 deficit and continued its mastery of the Flames. Counting a 4-0 sweep in the regular season, the Blackhawks have won six straight against Calgary.
Games 3 and 4 will be played at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Monday and Wednesday.
Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff stopped a hard slapper from the left circle by Dave Bolland, but the puck bounced off of him. Toews was right there to knock it in and give the young Blackhawks the lead.
Blackhawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin made 30 saves, as did Kiprusoff.
“We established a good road game. We took the lead, played with a lot of authority in the first period,” Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. “We expected them to come back and push us hard, which they did. We didn’t respond like we needed to. They were able to take the game back in the second period.”
Jarome Iginla and Adrian Aucoin gave the Flames a 2-0 lead in the opening period, momentarily quieting another raucous crowd at the United Center.
But Chicago responded with a power-play goal from Toews early in the second and a tying score from Patrick Sharp before taking the lead.
“Down 2-0 in your own building is not anything you are looking for,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “I liked the way we battled back . . . After the first period we weren’t happy. We knew we had a power play in our back pocket. That was pivotal for us. We got some huge momentum off that.”
The Flames were 0-for-43 on the power play over their final 10 regular-season games and 0-for-3 in Game 1 before Iginla converted. Dion Phaneuf fired a shot from the point, and after teammate Mike Cammalleri had a chance in-close, Iginla followed in the rebound past Khabibulin for a 1-0 lead.
With both teams a man down, the Flames made it 2-0 when former Blackhawks defenceman Adrian Aucoin shovelled in a shot from the crease after the puck bounced off Chicago defenceman Duncan Keith’s stick and went under Khabibulin.
But on a power play 46 seconds into the second period, Toews, Chicago’s 20-year-old captain, took a nice diagonal pass from Sharp and easily pushed it past Kiprusoff to cut it to 2-1.
Sharp tied it with just under six minutes to go in the second when he streaked to the net ahead of the Calgary defence and took a pass from Patrick Kane for the goal.
Khabibulin then turned away four shots on a Flames power play, and minutes later Toews put Chicago ahead.