Tony Amonte’s wife delivered a Ty on Sunday.
Monday, just when it looked as if Amonte and the Blackhawks would have to settle for a bitter tie against the Vancouver Canucks, the proud father of the couple’s first child–a 7-pound-4-ounce boy, whose middle name is Rocco–scored with 2 minutes 18 seconds remaining to lift the Hawks to a 3-2 victory before 16,674 at the United Center.
The Hawks blew a 2-0 third-period lead before Amonte knocked in a rebound of his own shot. Jeff Hackett stopped 32 shots as the Hawks swept the four-game season series against Vancouver.
A 7-2-2 run, started by a 5-0 victory in Vancouver on Dec. 20, has lifted the Hawks (17-19-9) into sixth place in the Western Conference, one point ahead of Los Angeles.
Cam Russell, who lost a bout with the Canucks’ Donald Brashear in a scoreless first period, bounced off the canvas midway through the second to make a huge defensive play that set up what appeared to be the knockout blow for the Hawks.
With Mike Sillinger breaking in alone on Hackett, Russell dove to knock the puck away. Craig Mills picked it up in the corner and sent it off the boards, and Jean-Yves Leroux wound up on a breakaway the other way, scoring on Sean Burke for a 2-0 lead.
Kevin Miller opened the scoring at 4:41 of the second period, taking a pass from Chris Chelios in front of the net, making a nice move to his backhand and lifting the puck past Burke for his second goal of the season.
Leroux made it 2-0 at 9:48 before the Canucks made things interesting at 8:11 of the third, closing within 2-1 on Pavel Bure’s 27th goal of the season. Geoff Sanderson missed a chance to tie it when his backhand rebound sailed wide of an open net, and Alexander Mogilny hit the post with 7:42 remaining.
Mattias Ohlund eventually tied it with 3:30 left.
