Goaltender Jocelyn Thibault’s tendency to allow the opposition rebound shots and recurring faceoff problems led to the Blackhawks’ downfall for the second straight game Wednesday night.
The Montreal Canadiens capitalized on the lapses to take a two-goal lead and, thanks mainly to the goaltending of Jeff Hackett, survived a counterattack during which the Hawks tied the score before losing 3-2.
Late in the game, with Hawks defenseman Boris Mironov serving time for tripping, Shaun Van Allen won a faceoff from Steve Sullivan in the Hawks’ zone. Jan Bulis fed the puck to Stephane Quintal on the right point and the big defenseman the Hawks traded to the Canadiens on June 23 for a fourth-round draft choice fired it into the net with 4 minutes 32 seconds remaining to give Montreal its victory.
The Hawks had tied the score with 7:02 to play when Michael Nylander rammed in the rebound of a Tony Amonte shot amid a mob scene in front of the net.
Montreal opened the scoring late in the first period. Thibault juggled and then dropped a hard shot by Sergei Berezin. Chad Kilger swept up the loose puck in front of the goal and put it in the net.
Although the Hawks outshot the Canadiens 13-7 in the second period, it ended with Montreal holding a 2-1 lead, thanks to a goal by Bulis approaching the midway point. Just as Sullivan and Peter White lost faceoffs to pave the way for Flyers’ goals in Tuesday’s 5-4 defeat in Philadelphia, the Canadiens got the goal from Bulis after Joe Juneau beat Nylander to the draw in the Hawks’ end.
Mironov ended Hackett’s shutout bid 90 seconds later when the defenseman took Amonte’s pass from the rear boards and sent a shot from the outskirts of the right circle through a thicket of bodies.
Hackett, who went to Montreal in the 1998 seven-player trade that brought Thibault to Chicago, finished with 27 saves in ending the Canadiens’ losing streak at three. Thibault stopped 20 shots.
“Hackett made some tremendous saves,” Hawks coach Brian Sutter said. “We had some glorious opportunities in the second period and didn’t put it in.
“This was an ugly game to play in. There was no flow at all. They had four guys in the neutral zone any time we had possession. That’s the kind of game they wanted to play.”
Although the tempo of the game was different than in Philadelphia, the factors leading to the Hawks’ demise were identical.
“Look at the game last night and the game tonight,” Sutter said. “Look at what happened and how it happened.”
