Music: {allcanada} Hossa, Blackhawks rally past Canucks, snap skid

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

{allcanada} Hossa, Blackhawks rally past Canucks, snap skid

VANCOUVER -- It didn't take the Chicago Blackhawks long to erase a two-goal deficit against the slumping Vancouver Canucks.

The Blackhawks scored three times in 4:17 midway through the second period to end their four-game losing streak with a 5-2 win against the Canucks on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.

Marian Hossa started the comeback with a pretty power-play goal 6:30 into the second, Brandon Saad tied it at 9:39 and Jonathan Toews put Chicago ahead for good 68 seconds later. Patrick Sharp made it 4-2 with 5:49 left in the period, and Saad scored his second of the game into an empty net with 38 seconds left.

The Blackhawks bounced back from a 5-4 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night; they were 0-2-2 in their past four.

Chicago also overcame a two-goal deficit against the Flames, but this time they finished off the comeback. Corey Crawford, back in goal after coming on in relief the night before, finished with 29 saves as the Blackhawks moved back into sole possession of the Central Division lead with 79 points.

Chris Higgins scored 16 seconds into the game, and Tom Sestito put the Canucks up 2-0 early in the second period. It didn't last long against the NHL's top-scoring team, though, and Vancouver fell to 2-3-0 through five games of coach John Tortorella's 15-day suspension.

Roberto Luongo finished with 36 saves for the Canucks, who have four wins in 14 games in 2014 and will head out on the road for their final five games before the NHL breaks for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Olympians from both teams - the Blackhawks have 10 players headed to Sochi, and Vancouver has seven - were honored in a long pregame ceremony. It may have left Chicago napping, as Higgins scored on the opening shift, stopping Ryan Kesler's shot alone in the slot and slipping a backhand between Crawford's legs.

Chicago took over from there, outshooting the Canucks 12-2 over the next 15 minutes and forcing Luongo to make several spectacular saves while also getting help from his post on a Hossa break.

Crawford answered with a couple stunners of his own late in the opening period, using his mask to stop Kesler's shot from the low slot and sprawling to rob Brad Richardson on a rebound in tight.

Sestito doubled the lead at 2:44 of the second period with a one-timer from the slot after a nice cycle by the Canucks' third line. But the floodgates opened with David Booth off for bumping Crawford.

Hossa finished off some perfect power-play passing with his 24th goal. Saad moved the puck out of the right corner to Kris Versteeg at the left faceoff dot; Versteeg sent it back across the ice to Hossa, who had time to settle the hard pass and fire over a sprawled Luongo.

Hossa has three goals in two games after scoring twice in Calgary on Tuesday.

Saad tied it a little more than three minutes later with a nice deflection in the slot of a point shot from Sheldon Brookbank, who was back in the lineup in place of Michal Rozsival after sitting out in Calgary.

Toews was left untouched atop the crease to tip in a bouncing puck thrown to the net by Brent Seabrook less than a minute later. He set up Sharp's insurance goal with a nice drop pass off the rush before the period ended. The pass, which gives Toews 34 assists, left Sharp with time and space to beat fellow Canadian Olympian Luongo with a glove-side wrist shot.

The Blackhawks, who are two games into a six-game road trip that will take them into the Olympic break, made a couple lineup changes after the overtime loss against the Flames. Forward Bryan Bickell, who is in the first season of a four-year, $16 million contract, was a surprise scratch for the second time in three games; veteran Michal Handzus took his place in the lineup after sitting out Tuesday.

The moves paid off for the Blackhawks, who improved to 10-1-3 in the second half of back-to-back games this season, giving coach Joel Quenneville his 693rd NHL win to move into sole possession of third place on the NHL's all-time list, one ahead of Dick Irvin and behind only Al Arbour (782) and Scotty Bowman (1,244).

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