The Chicago Blackhawks won their game against the Calgary Flames, 4-3. Andreas Athanasiou was the star of the night as he scored twice for Chicago. Jujhar Khaira and Austin Wagner also had a goal each to help with their victory. It was the third game that the Blackhawks have swept against the Flames so far this season, after losing eight games in a row before this one.
Athanasiou said that all the players wanted to come into the game, work hard and try their best in order to win it. Noah Hanifin had one goal and one assist while Calgary (36-27-15) had won four games in a row. Tyler Toffoli got his 34th goal and Mikael Backlund also scored.
The Flames have four games left in the regular season and are two points behind the Jets, who have one extra game played. Their face-off is on Wednesday. Coach Sutter said that the team was lethargic from exhaustion and this caused their lack of success due to turnovers and bad decisions with the puck.
Petr Mrazek stopped 33 shots for the Chicago team, which improved his record to 9 wins and 21 losses, plus 3 draws. Jacob Markstrom saved 19 shots for Calgary. He had started their last 17 games, but with this game he now has 22 wins, 21 losses, and 10 ties.
After 40 minutes of playing time the score between Chicago and Calgary was tied 2-2. Early in the third period Chicago got its third lead when Athanasiou stole the puck from Kadri of Calgary and then Reichel passed it back to him so that he could make a score.
Athanasiou has scored four goals in his last three games and 18 for the Blackhawks’ season. The Blackhawks then went ahead 4-2 when a bouncing puck got past Rasmus Andersson. Wagner took the opportunity to score by skating around MacKenzie Weegar, who was trying to slide him off, and shot it in past Markstrom’s reach.
Backlund scored a goal at 13:09 which ricocheted off Chicago defenseman Ian Mitchell and the Flames got back in the game, but the Blackhawks still ended up winning.
Calgary was excited to have veteran defensive player Chris Tanev join their team again after he was injured and missed six games. He made an impression on everyone when he tackled Jason Dickinson with an open-ice hit during his first period of play.
The Blackhawks dominated throughout the entirety of the game.
The Chicago Blackhawks won in their last matchup against the Calgary Flames, now winning 9 out of 15 times that they have faced each other! Next up for the Blackhawks is a game against Vancouver and for the Flames it will be Winnipeg.
