The Hawks’ Patrick Sharp celebrates a hat trick

For forty minutes tonight looked like a classic game between the Devils and the defending Stanley Cup champs with momentum shifts both ways, great saves and up-and-down play.  Unfortunately the Hawks shifted into another gear in the third period, that coupled with some shaky defense and goaltending and voila – you have four goals given up in the final twenty minutes of a 5-3 loss.  Tonight was a classic case of arguing whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, as there were both positives and negatives to come out of tonight’s game.  Ultimately a loss is a loss, and another opportunity to put together an actual winning streak (the Devils had won their prior two games before tonight) went by the boards.  Still, the Devils are a borderline playoff team and the Hawks are the best team in the league who just whipped us ten days ago in Chicago.  You couldn’t reasonably expect a win.

Yet, the opportunity was there to win the game after the teams came out of an even first forty minutes tied at one.  In hindsight, missed opportunities by Stephen Gionta (who was actually one of the two or three best Devils in the game) and Travis Zajac on breakaways in the second period would come back to haunt the team.  On the other hand, after a dominant first ten minutes from the Hawks that saw them get two power plays and the game’s first six shots, it looked like this would be another long night like the 5-2 drubbing in Chi-town just before Christmas.  Surprisingly, the game was still a scoreless tie when the Devils killed off those penalties and responded with a strong final ten minutes in the first.

Chicago came out rolling in the first couple minutes of the second and took advantage of a horrific turnover by Eric Gelinas when Patrick Sharp scored on a wrist shot around traffic and over the glove of Martin Brodeur at 1:34.  Amazingly, the Devils struck back just forty-three seconds later when Gionta sprung Andy Greene on a breakaway and the defenseman patiently put the puck past Antti Raanta for his seventh of the season, tying the game.  On went the ebb and flow, though there were no further goals I was generally happy with the first forty minutes all told.

Within the first 5:34 of the third period all that went out the window and showing off their talent, the Hawks quickly blew up the game.  Brandon Saad‘s goal after ninety seconds was scored after a fortunate series of bounces from an innocous Patrick Kane shot that bounced off Marek Zidlicky and then off Saad past Brodeur to give the Hawks the lead.  Just seventy-four seconds later came arguably a back-breaking goal from Sharp, who beat Brodeur near-side with an unscreened wrister off the boards.  After a Michael Ryder turnover, the Hawks turned it into the third goal of the period with a bang-bang transition game resulting in a Marian Hossa wrister that seemed to settle the issue.  It would have been a shame to have the game end like that after the first forty minutes but I definitely had the sense of ‘oh well, they were just toying with us the first two periods and now the monster is out of the cage’.

While the monster may have been out of the cage, the Devils have shown that for all their ills they won’t give up on a game.  Even without Patrik Elias in the lineup (slated to miss at least two games after getting wasted by Tanner Glass on New Year’s Eve), the Devils fought back.  It was Zidlicky and our fourth line (not CBGB, which was essentially the third line tonight) which put a pulse back in the game, when Reid Boucher caused a turnover by the boards, and Andrei Loiktionov found a wide open Zidlicky streaking to the net.  Zidlicky beat Raanta with a wrister at 7:09.  Taking the initiative once again, it would be Gionta who drew his second penalty of the night, a hooking call on Patrick Kane.  While the Devils’ power play had been powerless to do anything against the Hawks’ penalty kill in their previous five chances, they finally connected at this juncture when Jaromir Jagr and Eric Gelinas began a nice tic-tac-toe play which ended with Zidlicky taking the pass off his skate and calmly settling the puck and firing in his second goal of the period and seventh of the season at 13:37 to pull the Devils within one.

Admittedly I’d kidded around with the guy next to me after Zidlicky’s first goal saying ‘here comes the futile comeback’…but when you’re within a goal for five minutes, you have a chance.  Indeed we did have a chance, until Sharp got a final, fatal breakaway.  Brodeur committed to a blind, kamikaze pokecheck too soon, Sharp skated around him and put it into an open net to seal the game up with eighty-eight seconds left – completing a hat trick to boot.  Showing a presence at the Prudential Center, the Hawk fans in attendance began throwing a decent number of hats onto the ice to commemorate the dirty deed.

Perhaps the best news for the Devils is that they have an opportunity to get back on the beam in Buffalo tomorrow night, although those games are never easy.  Certainly not as easy as they ‘should’ be, given the Sabres’ record.  Still, if you’re going to be a playoff team you have to start making hay with what’s coming up – after tomorrow’s game comes three winnable home games against the Flyers, Stars (though they’re off to a surprisingly strong start under Lindy Ruff) and Senators before the Devils conclude January with seven out of ten road games, plus one ‘home’ game at Yankee Stadium in the first of two local Stadium Series outdoor games.  Certainly for Cory Schnieder tomorrow presents another opportunity to not only state his case to play more games in goal, but also to feel better about his contribution to the team with just five wins in his first eighteen games as a Devil.  I’d like to harp on the positive and say tonight was two steps forward from our prior game against the Hawks and the Devils are playing better, but let’s face it, losing tomorrow night blows up all the progress we’ve made since Christmas.