Jan. 11--The Blackhawks' offensive explosion propelled them to a 6-3 victory over the Avalanche. Marian Hossa scored two goal. So did Patrick Kane. Here are some other notes from the victory.
Vanquishing Varlamov
On Dec. 15, Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov shut out the Blackhawks and ended Patrick Kane's franchise-record point streak. After that game, Varlamov was undefeated in his last nine appearances against the Hawks. He said he especially liked playing at the United Center.
"Some arenas you just feel very comfortable," Varlamov said then. "You like the ice and you like the crowd and you just feel good about yourself."
The Hawks made sure Varlamov exited Sunday night feeling pretty miserable.
They chased Varlamov from the game as they decimated the Avalanche 6-3 at the United Center to win their seventh consecutive game and second consecutive against Varlamov.
"I can say, I don't remember pucks going in against him ever," coach Joel Quenneville said. "It's the first time we were able to get some goals on him. It was a nice night on the offensive side of things."
Kane got a little bit of revenge on Varlamov by scoring two goals, including the one that caused Avalanche coach Patrick Roy to bench Varlamov. Marian Hossa snapped his 14-game goal drought with two goals while Jonathan Toews added his 16th goal of the season.
No goaltender has owned the Hawks over their three Stanley Cup runs the last six season, but Varlamov came about as close as one could. Entering Sunday, Varlamov had an 11-3-1 record and a 1.93 goals-against average versus the Hawks. But the Hawks have now won their last two games against Varlamov with Sunday's thrashing following a 4-3 overtime victory on Dec. 31.
The Hawks took Varlamov out early thanks to a crackling offensive display in the second period.
The Hawks scored four goals, three coming from the top line of Hossa, Jonathan Toews and Andrew Shaw, which has been inconsistent lighting the lamp. But it seemed as if the lamp was on the entire period.
The period was the centerpiece of an offensive explosion for the Hawks, who scored six goals for just the second time this season.
An off night, by his standards
Corey Crawford has been on fire of late. How on fire has he been? Well, Sunday's game was just the fourth time since Dec. 3 that Crawford allowed three or more goals in a game. That's a span of 15 games. In the 11 others, Crawford allowed two or fewer. Yet Crawford still had his moments in making 34 saves on Sunday.
Corsi analysis
The Hawks won the Corsi battle 65-58 on Sunday, 57-44 during 5 vs. 5 play. Artemi Panarin led the Hawks in Corsi while the defensemen who led the Hawks in Corsi might surprise some people -- the bottom pair of Michal Rozsival and Trevor van Riemsdyk, who also had the most defensive zone starts of any pairing.
