Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Hawks are moving onto Western Conference

Well, well, well......how bout them Hawks?!?!  They have advanced to the Western Conference finals.  They won vs. Blues in six  and vs. Wild making them 8-4 for the playoffs.  Lots of players have stepped in up in both series.  Let's take a look at how they got there.  

Top Leaders in each category after two rounds

Goals- 6 Kane and Bickell
Assists- 9 Hossa and Seabrook
Points- 11 Seabrook and Hossa
+/- +5 Toews, Kane, Keith, and Smith -4 Handzus and Nordstrom
Takeaways- 16 Hossa
Hits- 45 Bickell
Blocked Shots- 38 Hjalmarsson
Giveaways- 17 Keith
FO%- 58.0 Toews
PIM- 17 Seabrook
PPG- 2 Bickell  

PPP- 3 Seabrook
TOI- 27:57 Keith
S%- 22.7 Toews
GWG- 4 Toews
OTG- 2 Kane



I broke it down to each series since the Blues and Wild play a different type of style. 

Overall as a team for Round 1 vs Blues
Power play-In 20 times having a man-advantage they have scored 3 goals putting them at 15% for that series.
Penalty kill- In 29 times of being short-handed they have allowed 2 goals putting them at 93.1% for that series.
Offense- In 6 games....the Hawks have averaged 3.33 goals per game. 
Defense- In 6 games....the Hawks have averaged 2.33 goals allowed per game. 
Goaltending- If im doing my math right Crawford was .874% for the series.


Game Recaps
Game 1 Blues win 4-3 (3rd OT)
-Alexander Steen (1st star of the game) scores 26 seconds into the third overtime to get the GWG and have the Blues start the series 1-0
- Seabrook with the only PPG for the game
Game 2 Blues win 4-3 (OT)
-Vladimir Tarasenko tied the game with 6.4 seconds left in the game to send it into overtime
-Barret Jackman scores 5:50 in overtime to give the Blues a 2-0 lead in the series
-Blues only score 1 PPG out of 9 opportunities :/
Game 3 Hawks win 2-0
-Crawford (1st star of the game) with the shutout making 34 saves for the game
-Toews with the lone goal in the 1st at 4:10
-Kruger with the empty netter
Game 4 Hawks win 4-3 (OT)
-Kane (1st star of the game) with the GWG in overtime to give the Hawks the win.  2G, 1A +2
-Bickell scores 3:52 left in the game to force the game into OT.
Game 5 Hawks win 3-2 (OT)
-Chicago won in St. Louis for the first time since April 14, 2013
-Toews with the GWG in overtime to give the Hawks a W on a breakaway
-Blues outhit the Hawks 54-17
Game 6 Hawks win 5-1
-Oshie with the lone goal for the Blues
-Toews and Sharp score 1:17 apart beginning of the 3rd to change the momentum of the game



Overall as a team for Round 2 vs Wild
Power play-In 13 times having a man-advantage they have scored 3 goals putting them at 23.1% for that series.
Penalty kill- In 17 times of being short-handed they have allowed 2 goals putting them at 88.2% for that series.
Offense- In 6 games....the Hawks have averaged 2.56 goals per game. 
Defense- In 6 games....the Hawks have averaged 2.17 goals allowed per game. 
Goaltending- If im doing my math right Crawford was .934% for the series.

Game Recaps
Game 1 Hawks win 5-2
-Kane and Bickell with two goals each 
-Bickell and Hossa each with a power play goal for the game.
Game 2 Hawks win 4-1
-Bickell (1G, 2A) Hossa (3A) and Saad (2G) three stars of the game
-Toews with a six game point streak
Game 3 Wild win 4-0
-Bryzgalov with the shutout making 19 saves for the game.
-All four goals were scored in the third period of the game.
Game 4 Wild win 4-2
-Niederreiter (Wild)scores 44 seconds after Handzus ties it up for the Hawks and the momentum is in their favor to win the game
-Wild are 5-0 at home for the playoffs so far.
Game 5 Hawks win 2-1
-Blackhawks used to score the tying goal and allowed them to become the first team in this series to win after allowing the first goal. In fact, Chicago is the first team in the second round to claim victory after allowing the first goal. It had not happened in the first 19 games of this round.
Game 6 Hawks win 2-1 (OT)
-Versteeg scores 1:58 into the game. 
-Chicago won the series 4-2 and has won 14 straight games when a series was tied 2-2 since the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs
-Kane scores the GWG in OT to clinch the series 4-2 and move onto the Western Conference Finals




Here are some interesting facts from @ckamka on Twitter
-Patrick Kane: 4th Playoff OT Game winning goal. Sets franchise record, breaking tie with Roenick
-Corey Crawford in playoff games where opponent faces elimination: W-L: 6-1 GAA: 1.40 SV%: .950
career playoff goal leaders 62 Bobby Hull 61 Denis Savard 59 Stan Mikita 45 Steve Larmer 35 Patrick Kane 35 Jeremy Roenick
had 3 regular season shutouts. Blues (who they already beat), and both of their possible next round opponents (Kings & Ducks)
career playoff win list 45 Tony Esposito 35 Ed Belfour 31 Glenn Hall 29 Corey Crawford


OVERALL
 The team manages to win which is what I love about them.  Crawford has been playing very well despite all the haters.  Crazy to think that at this point I have the same feeling back in 10"....hopefully I'm right.  So it looks like Habs play the Bruins in their conference final and fate will decide who the Hawks play on Sunday either Kings or Ducks.  Hopefully we end up with home ice advantage.  And as always GO HAWKS!!!!!

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