Blackhawks Can't Solve Hiller, Flames

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 16, 2014 2:40PM

The most rabid Blackhawks fans likely had nightmares last night of team play-by-play man Pat Foley creeping behind them and shouting, "and a save by HIller!" whenever it seemed like they would finally fall into a deep slumber. That's how amazing Calgary goalie Jonas Hiller was between the pipes in the Flames' 2-1 overtime win over the Hawks at the United Center Wednesday night. All you need to know about this game is that Chicago had a dominating 50-18 advantage in shots on goal; Hiller stopped 49 shots.

Calgary took a 1-0 lead with a Dennis Wideman slap shot at the 11:55 mark of the first period. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, continued to futilely place the puck in play against Hiller, who performed some acrobatic, point blank saves before Andrew Shaw forced overtime with a goal with 5:45 remaining in regulation. Hiller continued to shine the remainder of regulation and into overtime before Mikael Backlund scored the game winner 4:35 into the extra period.

The other telling stat is the Hawks woeful power play performance. They found themselves with a man advantage eight times in the game and only managed to score once on Shaw's tying goal. Power play efficiency has long been one of the Blackhawks' Achilles heels and it's gotten to the point where coach Joel Quenneville has no answers. At least, he had no answers to offer at the postgame news conference.