Hawks power past Kings
CHICAGO – First the Blackhawks welcomed Jonathan Toews and Ben Eager back to the lineup, and then they welcomed their power play back from whatever abyss it had sunk into.
Sparked by the return of their captain, who missed nearly three weeks with a concussion, the Hawks played a solid game in all aspects as they defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Monday night at the United Center.
The Hawks got two goals with a man advantage, including one by Toews, in the third period to break open a close game and improve their record to 9-5-2 in front of a crowd of 20,293.
Troy Brouwer had a goal and two assists, and John Madden and Andrew Ebbett also scored. Goaltender Cristobal Huet made 17 saves to record the victory.
Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp each added two assists as the Hawks kicked off a four-game homestand in style.
“I’m looking to improve on a lot of things I did [Monday night], but it was a good first game back,” said Toews, who played 19 minutes after missing six consecutive games. “It was nice to score a goal, so hopefully I can keep building on that and helping my linemates offensively a little bit more.”
After a scoreless first period, the Hawks broke through just over a minute into the second. Madden took a pass from Brouwer and put a backhander through Kings goalie Jonathan Quick’s pads for a 1-0 lead.
Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar, the league’s leading scorer, tied it midway through the second when he tapped in a rebound of a Drew Doughty shot. Kopitar is tied with the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin with 14 goals, and he is alone with 28 points.
The Hawks opened the third on a power play, and Brouwer cashed in from just outside the left post after redirecting a Sharp pass for a 2-1 lead. It was just the Hawks’ fourth score with a man advantage in their last 34 opportunities.
“Right from my warm-up before the game, I felt I had a lot of good jump in my legs and got into the game early with a couple big hits and good opportunity right away, and that really set the tone for the rest of the game,” Brouwer said.
“Our first goal was to beat L.A. here, and another goal was to get our power play going, and we did.”
The power-play unit got another chance after Kopitar hooked Brouwer, and Toews capped his comeback by skating across the crease and sending a backhander past Quick to the stick side to make it 3-1.
Ebbett scored his first goal as a Hawk after teammate Brian Campbell fired a puck toward the Kings’ net that bounced high off Ebbett’s body and into the net.
“It was good to get our captain back in the lineup,” Madden said. “He brings a presence regardless if he scores or not. He competes so hard, and you can feed off that and it becomes contagious out there.”
Eager made his first appearance after missing 13 games with a concussion and was held off the scoresheet.
Huet upped his record to 6-4-1.
