4th Staight Overtime / 2nd Straight Result

Mike Smith is better than Corey Crawford. Period. That’s it. You can break down board battles, hits, Penalty Kills, Power Plays, turnovers, or whatever all you want.  What it comes down to in this series, OT in particular, is the goaltending. Crawford has let in back to back DUMB goals to end the game with a loss. Last night’s game winning shot cannot even be classified as a shot the way I see it. With all four of the games going to OT, this series could be anywhere from over to 2 - 2.  As it stands, it is 3 - 1 Phoenix. The Hawks must now win all 3 remaining games, two of them on the road, not impossible, but pretty unlikely.

The lines last night saw 1) Saad / Toews / Brunette. 2) Sharp / Kane / Kruger.  3) Bickell / Bolland / Frolik 4) Bollig / Morison / Stalberg. With Hossa out, the lack of depth on this team is very evident.  O’Donnell was the 6th D-man in the revolving d-door in this game.

The first period featured another unsuccessful Power Play by the Hawks (1 for 10 going into the game). Their was also a fight between Bollig and Bissonnette, 5 each plus a game misconduct for the Yote. (Not have the fight srtap secured is what was announced) Crawford wasn’t really tested until halfway through the period. A late shot off the post by Phoenix was really their only threat. I actually felt pretty good about the Hawks energy at this point. They out shot Phoenix 11 - 5 , in a scoreless period.

Source: http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/talk_hawks/comments/4th_staight_overtime_2nd_straight_result/

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