NHL

Sedins Sink Blackhawks in 6-3 Rout Saturday

An Artem Anisimov goal tied things up late in the third period, but the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t overcome a combined nine points by Henrik and Daniel Sedin as they fell 6-3 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

The loss for the Blackhawks is their second in a row, and it sends them to the California leg of their circus trip with a 1-1-1 record thus far on the lengthy road spell.

Patrick Kane did extend his points streak to 16 games, but it wasn’t enough as the Hawks fell behind late in the game.

The game got off to a great start for the Blackhawks, as they got an early power play and capitalized to seize the lead. Jonathan Toews was the player that drew the penalty as he was tripped up on the rush, and he was the player that capitalized as he received a pass from Marian Hossa and ripped a shot into the top corner of the net to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, their lead was short-lived as the Canucks tied things up. With Niklas Hjalmarsson and Toews both in the penalty box, Daniel Sedin found a wide open Henrik Sedin in the slot, and he fired home a shot past Corey Crawford to knot things up at 1-1.

Henrik Sedin notched another point later in the period, as he won a puck battle along the boards. His pass was pushed out to the front of the net, and Jannik Hansen was there to poke home the loose puck to put Vancouver up by a score of 2-1.

The Blackhawks responded a few moments later with another goal to knot things up. This time Toews played the role of facilitator, carrying the puck around the net and sliding a pass to Ryan Garbutt in the slot. The winger found paydirt as his shot beat Ryan Miller, giving Garbutt his first goal as a member of the Blackhawks.

In the second period, the Blackhawks dominated possession early on, but a power play seemed to turn the momentum of the game and gave Vancouver back the lead. Henrik Sedin forced a turnover in the corner of the ice, and the puck jumped off Duncan Keith’s stick and into the middle of the ice. Daniel Sedin found an open seam and slid a shot between Crawford’s leg pads to make it a 3-2 game.

The teams traded chances to score as the second period ended and the third begun, but neither was able to get the critical next goal. The Hawks had a late power play in the second period that they failed to score on, and then the Canucks picked up a 3-on-1 rush early in the third, but Alex Burrows’ shot never made it on net as the Vancouver lead remained at one goal.

With about eight minutes to go in regulation, the Blackhawks scored to tie things up. Patrick Kane found Trevor Daley open in the slot, and although the defenseman’s shot bounced off of Alex Edler in front, Artem Anisimov was there to pick up the rebound as he flipped it into the net to tie things up at 3-3.

That all changed in the span of two minutes, as Daniel Sedin scored two goals to secure his hat trick and give Vancouver a two-goal advantage with three and a half minutes to go. His second goal in the sequence was a beautiful one, as he pulled off a backhanded one-timer off a pass from his brother Henrik to make it a 5-3 game.

Alex Burrows added an empty net goal late in the game to seal it, sending the Blackhawks to defeat.

The Hawks will look to get things going in the right direction on Wednesday night when they head to San Jose to take on the Sharks.

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