Music: {allcanada} Toews' hat trick rallies Blackhawks past Senators

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

{allcanada} Toews' hat trick rallies Blackhawks past Senators

CHICAGO - It was a goalie's worst nightmare and a goal-scorer's dream.

Jonathan Toews had the third regular-season hat trick of his career and Andrew Shaw scored twice as the Chicago Blackhawks came back from a two-goal deficit in the second period to beat the Ottawa Senators 6-5 Tuesday night at United Center.

Corey Crawford relieved Nikolai Khabibulin in the second period and made 14 saves to earn the win. Toews led the comeback by scoring one goal late in the middle period and two more in the third to put the Blackhawks up 5-4 before Shaw made it 6-4 with his second of the game at 14:10.

Toews also had an assist for a four-point game.

Zack Smith scored 13 seconds after Shaw's goal for the Senators (4-6-2). Milan Michalek, Kyle Turris, Joe Corvo and Mika Zibanejad also scored for Ottawa, which has dropped three games in a row.

Marian Hossa scored the other goal for Chicago (8-2-3), which swept its second back-to-back set of 18 on the schedule in dramatic fashion. Craig Anderson (34 saves) took the loss.

Both goalies were busy in the opening period. Ottawa put 15 shots on net against Khabibulin and the Blackhawks fired 12 against Anderson, with each side putting one into the net. Shaw put the Blackhawks at 6:54 with a power-play goal; Michalek got Ottawa even 59.2 seconds left in the period by scoring his third goal of the season and first five games.

Shaw's goal came the way many of his do -- he charged to the net and had a slapper by Patrick Sharp deflect off his stick past Anderson. Toews was also crashing the net at the time to make Anderson's job even more difficult.

Khabibulin helped preserve the slim lead for most of the period, making several impressive stops to keep the Senators at bay before Michalek finally zipped one past him in the final minute. After Anderson turned aside a 2-on-1 rush by Sharp and Toews, Bobby Ryan started a break the other way that Michalek finished. He scooped a loose puck away from Ryan and two Blackhawks defenders in the left circle and roofed a hard wrister into the top right corner past Khabibulin's glove.

The second period was considerably worse for both goalies, but especially the 40-year old Khabibulin, who signed a one-year contract in the summer to replace Ray Emery as Crawford's backup. Khabibulin lasted 11:14 into the second before getting pulled for Crawford after allowing three goals on seven shots to give the Senators a 4-2 lead.

Turris scored at 6:51 and Corvo found the back of the net at 10:19, with Hossa's 100th goal as a Blackhawk sandwiched between them at 7:41. The goal that drove Khabibulin from the net came off the stick of Zibanejad.

The 20-year old forward, who was just called up from Binghamton of the American Hockey League last week, made it 4-2 on a nice individual effort. After beating Toews to a puck near the wall in the offensive zone, he carried it to the slot, past a diving Duncan Keith, for a wrister that beat Khabibulin 55 seconds after Corvo's goal. Crawford entered to a standing ovation and stopped all four shots he faced the rest of the period.

That included a point-blank shorthanded opportunity less than two minutes after Toews' first goal, at 14:30, brought Chicago within 4-3. Crawford first made a nice pad save to stop Jason Spezza and then swatted the rebound away from the crease, while falling backward, to prevent a sure goal by Michalek.

Another great save against Spezza started the third period and set the stage for Toews' game-tying goal at 1:20. Toews was rewarded for charging hard to the front of the net when Johnny Oduya hit his stick with a perfect cross-ice pass for a redirection that beat Anderson from the doorstep.

Lightning Bolt - Pearl Jam