Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane and His Bag of Tricks are Too Much for Arizona

Patrick Kane stepped up big for the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night at the United Center.

Coming off a huge win Tuesday night against Minnesota, many thought that the Chicago Blackhawks would fall into a trap game and play poorly against a less superior opponent.

Chicago welcomed in the Arizona Coyotes Thursday night at the United Center. The Blackhawks entered the game five points behind division leading Minnesota Wild. Arizona came in with 20 wins on the season. The numbers would suggest that Chicago has the upper hand, but it’s not that simple when playing team like Arizona with big defensemen and gritty forwards.

The first period saw six goals scored between the two teams, Nick Schmaltz opened up the scoring 37 seconds into the game. Ryan Hartman and Patrick Kane would each add to the score sheet. Arizona came to play though, and were not intimidated by the loud crowd at the UC. Arizona notched three goals of their own before heading into intermission.

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Not only did the Blackhawks lose the lead in the first period but more importantly they lost star defensemen Niklas Hjalmarsson with an undisclosed injury. Hjalmarsson only played about five minutes in the period after missing this mornings team skate. Losing a player like Hjalmarsson for an extended amount of time is not what the Chicago Blackhawks need or want at this point of the season.

Patrick Kane and Micheal Rozsival would add goals in the second period. The second period was pretty much all Chicago, they played well in all aspects of the game. The Blackhawks would find themselves in penalty killing mode a few times during the second, but that was no issue for the penalty killers.

Marian Hossa who assisted on a goal in the first period had himself a couple strong shifts throughout the period, coming up with a  nice steal which lead to a great scoring chance on the penalty kill.

Tuesday night’s game in Minnesota saw Johnathan Toews record a hat trick and his fellow line mates also added a goal each, tonight was not much different for the Toews line. Schmaltz and Panik both had really good games offensively. Schmaltz finished with one goal and one assist.

The difference maker for tonight was none other than the reigning MVP of the NHL Patrick Kane. Kane recorded his third career hat trick, only two days after his close friend and captain of the Hawks recorded a hat trick in Minnesota. Chicago desperately needed to get production out of Kane and company. Kane now has 23 goals on the season and 63 points.

3 Stars of the Game

1. Patrick Kane– 3 goals- Patrick Kane came out and dominated Arizona notching his third career hat trick and bringing his points total to 64 on the season.
2. Ryan Hartman-1 goal and 1 assist- Hartman played well on both sides of the ice tonight getting his 15th goal of the season and helping out on defense gets Hartman my number two star tonight.
3. Nick Schmaltz– 1 goal and 1 assist. Schmaltz has been lights out lately and that didn’t stop tonight. With 6 goals on the season now and clicking well with line-mates Panik and Toews the sky is the limit for Schmaltz, he earned my third star tonight.

Next: Blackhawks' Alex DeBrincat a Future Star

Up Next

Chicago is now 38-18-5 on the season and play host to bitter rival St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.

Arizona will travel to Dallas to take on the under-achieving Stars Friday night.