Hawks hit the Road
The Blackhawks will make their way to the Saddledome tonight to try and put a stranglehold on the series against Calgary. The Hawks were 2-0 at Calgary this season, but the playoffs are a whole different animal.
Calls don’t go your way on the road, momentum is nearly impossible to create and even harder to sustain, and meltdowns like the Flames have had in the first two games don’t tend to happen. If the Hawks go down one or two goals early again in Game 3, we’ll be looking at a 2-1 series going into Game 4.
However, the Hawks do have the one thing that can really make the difference on the road in the playoffs and that’s goaltending. Khabibulin has been excellent in the first two games and if he can stay hot, I like Chicago’s chances tonight.
The other advantage for the Hawks is that they made sure they didn’t have a reason to be overly-nervous. Winning the first two games means that the worst it could be coming back home Saturday will be 2-2. Steal one of these games though, and the Flames will be setting up tee times in short order.
Even though the Hawks are the young and inexperienced team in the series, it has been Calgary melting down when the pressure is on. And if they thought they were under pressure in the first two games, a quasi-elimination game tonight won’t be any better. Look for the Hawks to capitalize on a couple mistakes from Calgary. Whether it’s a sloppy pass, a dumb penalty, or someone going out of position to make a big hit, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Calgary a little out of sorts tonight.
The first period will be key tonight, so make sure and tune in for the start at 8:30 ct on CSN or Versus, depending where you’re at.
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