Morning Box Score
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Oct 31, 2009 3:30PM
'Hawks Edge Habs
The 'Hawks got a late go-ahead goal from Patrick Sharp to edge Montreal 3-2 in a match-up of Original Six teams on Friday night. Kris Versteeg opened the scoring in the latter half of the first period and Cam Barker netted a power play goal halfway through the second period to put the 'Hawks up 2-0. But Montreal answered with a pair of goals of their own, scored less than five minutes apart to close out the second period in a 2-2 tie. After playing most of the third period scoreless, Sharp's slap shot with 4:10 left gave the 'Hawks the 3-2 lead, which held until the clock hit zero. The 'Hawks continued a season-long trend of out-shooting opponents, this time by a 36-22 count. Cristobal Huet got the win between the pipes, stopping 20 of 22 shots he faced. The Blackhawks finish October at 8-4-1 and atop the Norris Central Division. Its a bit of a wait until their next game, Thursday, at Phoenix (8 p.m., CSN).
Celtics Wax Bulls
The highly anticipated "Game 8" between the Bulls and Celtics was...anticlimactic. In their first match-up since last spring's epic playoff series, the Celtics made quick work of a Bulls team who looked quite different from the team that had handled the Spurs the night before as Boston eased its way to a 118-90 victory. After the game, Coach Vinny said, "Against Boston you better bring it every night. We couldn't score enough to put pressure on them and we couldn't slow them down." It was an understatement as the Bulls found themselves in a 15-point deficit at halftime and just couldn't climb out of that hole; at one point in the third quarter, the Bulls found themselves down by 30. Joakim Noah led the Bulls with 16 points and 10 rebounds while Jannero Pargo added 13 off the bench. Derrick Rose was limited to just 23 minutes on the floor, scoring 10 points and pulling down zero rebounds. The team gets a breather today before playing their third game in four days tomorrow at Miami (5 p.m., CSN).