The Blackhawks Streak Is Buried In An Avalanche In Denver 6-2

March 8 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford (50) reacts after giving up four goals during the second period to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The streak is over and now ESPN and other major sports networks can put us in their rear view mirror.  Lebron James will probably stop tweeting about the Hawks, and Gary Bettman probably cried himself to sleep tonight, while Barry Melrose can now go back into hibernation until the playoffs begin.

The Hawks got off to a fast start when Brandon Saad, Marian Hossa, and Jonathan Toews put together a beautiful highlight reel passing play together then deposited the puck in the net behind Semyon Varlamov. Like Wednesday night at the United Center the Av’s dominated the play at times and it was the same during the first period in Denver.  After Bryan Bickell got called for hooking the Av’s Paul Stastny re-directed a Matt Duchene shot to tie up the contest.  The thing that stood out the most during the first period was how loud the Hawks fans were and how loud the chant Let’s Go Hawks sounded on the TV broadcast

The second period was the worst period of the season with the Hawks giving up four unanswered goals in the period. Duchene had a tremendous period scoring a goal and adding two more assists.  The first goal was set up when Viktor Stalberg was on all fours and struggled mightily to get off the ice and Colorado took advantage with the Duchene goal.  The second goal was scored by John Mitchell off a great feed from Ryan O’Reilly.  The Hawks were very bad at the face-off circle which hurt on the third goal which happened off a face off win on the power play.  This was the first time all season that the Hawks looked a step slow for most of the contest.

The third period started with Q pulling Crawford and putting Ray Emery in net.  The Hawks were the first to strike after failing to score on a power play when Bryan Bickell put a rocket into the back of the net for his 6th of the season to cut the lead to 5-2. The Hawks would put a lot of pressure on Colorado but they wouldn’t get another one into the net. The Av’s put one more in late against Emery for the 6-2 final.

What a great ride the Blackhawks gave us but it’s not the goal for the season. One of the real reasons the Hawks started out so hot was the frustration from the Hawks key players after getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in consecutive seasons.  Everyone knows it’s not what you do during the regular season that makes history, but it’s collecting those 16 wins when the big lights of the Stanley Cup playoffs begin! The slogan has been One Goal and that goal is the Cup.  The streak was a great appetizer to the main course that is coming after only 23 more Blackhawks games.

-Bickell on the second line looked lost for most of the night except for his rocket goal, so look for Stalberg to join Bolland and Kane Sunday night at the United Center.

-I hope for all involved that Q comes back to Crawford in net Sunday night.

What are your thoughts of the streak? Please let us know what you are thinking in the comment section! The Hawks are back at it Sunday night against the Edmonton Oilers the puck drops at 6pm central. The next streak is just a win away!

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