Chicago Blackhawks Defeat Winnipeg Jets 4-3 With Late Jonathan Toews Goal

By Keith Schultz | Mar 29, 2015

The Chicago Blackhawks headed to Winnipeg to take on the Jets and a team that was red hot entering the game while the Blackhawks have been ice cold. The Blackhawks for the first time since early December were sitting in fourth place in the Central Division and needed two points to get back into third, and here is how things transpired north of the border on Sunday night.

FIRST PERIOD

The first thing you noticed in the first period was that the Jets looked much faster than the Blackhawks. The Jets owned the possession game in the first period and looked to be in total control of the game. They peppered Corey Crawford early and even hit a post, but they couldn’t get the opening goal of the game.

The Blackhawks somehow with very little offensive zone time finally got into the Jets zone and after an incredible keep by Duncan Keith, a Brandon Saad rebound came out to Andrew Shaw who knocked in the opening goal of the game. The Hawks were lucky not to be down early and heading into the first intermission lead 7-6 in shots and 1-0 on the scoreboard.

SECOND PERIOD

The Chicago Blackhawks struggles continue on the offensive end. The Blackhawk had a 2 on 0 and had two chances to make it 2-0 but couldn’t get the puck in the net, while down the ice Dustin Byfuglien willed a puck into the net bouncing over Crawford to tie the game.

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To make matters worse the Blackhawks on their 2nd powerplay of the night made a terrible change which gave the Jets a 3 on 2 and in the end a Blake Wheeler short handed goal. The Blackhawks somehow tied it up on a fluky deflection from Brad Richards and the game was tied even though the Jets had carried the action for most of the period.

The back breaker of the period was when Byfuglien scored from the blue line when he blew one past Crawford and with that the period was over and the scoreboard read 3-2 Jets at the end of two periods.

THIRD PERIOD

The Winnipeg Jets had all the momentum or they were riding the Jet Stream, but after the Blackhawks killed off a Brad Richards penalty Patrick Sharp had a breakaway and what seems like the first time all season, he scored to tie the game up at 3! In a season of plenty of misses by Patrick Sharp it was great to see him cash in on a glorious chance.

The game looked really dicey when the Blackhawks had to kill a Jets powerplay with a couple minutes left in the game, but for the first time all game long the Chicago Blackhawks Penalty kill looked like one of the better units in the NHL and killed off the penalty.

In the final minute of the game Niklas Hjalmarsson fired one from the point that the Captain Jonathan Toews re-directed in for the go ahead goal. Somehow the Blackhawks scored 2 goals in the third period to steal a win and 2 points from the Winnipeg Jets. Toews scored with 31 seconds left on the clock and the Blackhawks had the 2 points they really needed.

– The Hawks looked better as the game wore on but still looked slower than the Jets

-With the win the Chicago Blackhawks are back in 3rd place in the Central Division

-Hopefully this win gives the Hawks some momentum leading into tomorrow night’s game against the LA Kings.

HAWKS WIN HAWKS WIN!!!

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