Led by the National Hockey League’s leading scorer, Jarome Iginla, Calgary threw a scare into the Blackhawks Sunday night in the United Center, but they held on for a 3-2 victory.
The narrow victory before 17,009 fans increased the Hawks’ fourth-place lead to two points over idle Los Angeles in the battle for home ice in the first round of the playoffs.
Mathematically, the Hawks still haven’t clinched their first trip to the playoffs in five years, but it’s almost a foregone conclusion. With four games left in the season, all they need is a tie or an overtime loss to have an insurmountable lead over Vancouver and Dallas. And if either of those teams play to a tie, it will be impossible for them to catch the Hawks.
The Hawks had lost two straight and were coming off one of their poorest performances of the season Friday night in St. Louis.
“Big-time win for us,” said coach Brian Sutter. “We’re the only team in the NHL that hasn’t lost three in a row.”
In complete contrast to their performance Friday, the Hawks came on strong in the first period.
“St. Louis was desperate then and we were desperate tonight,” said captain Tony Amonte. “We tried to give Calgary an excuse to quit, but those guys kept coming. Iginla is a great player.”
It took the Hawks only 5 minutes 50 seconds to gain a 2-0 lead on Amonte’s 26th goal and Steve Sullivan’s 21st. After failing to capitalize on two power-play chances, the Hawks increased their lead to 3-0 on an even-strength goal by Michael Nylander at 17:45. Joe Reekie’s pass paved the way for Nylander’s shot from in front of the net that came after he put a nifty move on goalie Mike Vernon.
“Joe made a great pass from the boards,” said Nylander. “I was all alone. I tried to deke him and go backhand and it worked.”
Little did Hawks fans think then that this was going to turn out to be the winning goal.
But then the Iginla factor entered the equation.
In the final minute of the first period, Nylander was sent to the penalty box for roughing and 19 seconds before the first intermission Iginla sent a blast from just beyond the right circle soaring over Jocelyn Thibault’s left shoulder into the net.
Calgary went back on the power play when Reekie was penalized for roughing. The Hawks killed the penalty, but nine seconds after Reekie came out of the penalty box Iginla scored again.
“To say [Iginla] is an exceptional player is an understatement,” said Sutter, who coached him in Calgary. “People who say he’s not a most valuable player candidate don’t know anything about hockey.
“When he shot the first one it was a shot I’d see 10 times a day in practice. On the second one he showed his brute strength. Joe Reekie had him and he just shoved Joe out of the way.”
The Hawks were unable to counterattack, but they didn’t collapse.
“The last half of the game we didn’t give them anything,” said Sutter.
“We have high expectations. Last year this hockey club had 71 points. Now we have 93.”
