Morning Box Score: Blackhawks In A Hole
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 21, 2013 2:40PM
The second-guessing has begun, Blackhawks fans. All the experts who predicted an easy series for the Hawks are now eating crow after Detroit took to the ice and pushed them around for a second straight game. Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard has been the difference in this series so far and proved stalwart again with 39 saves.
Detroit scored first in the second period thanks to a beautiful goal from Gustav Nyquist, who skated past Brent Seabrook for a loose puck and stared down Corey Crawford before putting the puck past the Hawks goalie with a slap shot. Drew Miller made it 2-0 Detroit at the 8:20 mark. Patrick Kane cut the deficit in half with a wrist shot at the 4:35 mark in the third period. But Detroit's physical play and stupid penalties by the Blackhawks led to Pavel Datsyuk's goal at the 6:46 mark.
Detroit now leads the series 2-1 and Patrick Eaves, who assisted on Datsyuk's goal, said the Red Wings believed they could skate with the Hawks even as Chicago swept them in the regular season. "I feel like we can play with these guys. We know they're a great team and we have to respect that, respect their skill. But we've been getting better. As long as we keep getting better on a nightly basis I think that's all we can worry about."
There are plenty of questions for Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville. Viktor Stalberg has been in Quenneville's doghouse since the playoffs began, while Michal Handzus was brought to Chicago specifically to help out in winning faceoffs and the Hawks are losing most of them in this series. Andrew Shaw, meanwhile, has morphed into the fourth Hanson brother on the ice. Any time Shaw feels like, you know, skating and scoring, he should.
Game 4 is Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.
The White Sox have quietly climbed to within striking distance of .500 ball now that the weather has warmed and the bats have awakened with them. Adam Dunn jump-started the Sox with a three-run homer in the first inning and the Sox were 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position to hand Boston's Jon Lester his first loss of the season. Dylan Axelrod continued to impress for the Sox' makeshift rotation, holding the BoSox to two runs and four hits in six innings. Addison Reed earned his 15th save with a perfect ninth inning.