Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane on his team's 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
In Brian Elliott's worst nightmare, he probably sees three Blackhawks breaking in alone with nary a defenseman in sight.
Unfortunately for the Blues goaltender, he was wide awake when the line of Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Dave Bolland got behind pinching blueliners during the first period of Tuesday night's game at the United Center. A give-and-go between Kane and Sharp resulted in the Hawks' first goal and they carried the momentum to a 3-2 victory over the Blues before a crowd of 21,455 on hand for the home opener.
"Not too many times are you going to see where you look up and you have two guys with you on a breakaway to make it a three-on-none," said Kane, who took a return pass from Sharp and tucked a backhander past Elliott. "Me and Sharp have talked about it a lot: If we ever get a 2-on-0 it's a pretty simple play, you give it to the guy and he gives it back. Usually it's an open net but I had to pull it back to my backhand. It was exciting."
In addition to Kane's highlight-reel goal, Brent Seabrook and Viktor Stalberg also scored and Corey Crawford was solid in goal as the Hawks won their third consecutive game to start the season. They also handed the Blues — playing the second of back-to-back games — their first loss of the season in three contests.
"(Tuesday night) was our best effort, our best team game so far this season," said Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith, who had an assist and five blocked shots. "We knew it was going to be a tough game (and) … we did a good job of stepping up to that challenge."
In the second, the Hawks made it 2-0 while on the power play when Keith fired a long shot that hit Seabrook's skate en route to the goal and slid through Elliott's pads.
Early in the third, Stalberg made it a three-goal advantage when he ripped a shot from the right circle that eluded Elliott to the glove side.
Crawford entered the third period with a shutout but Andy McDonald scored to end the bid. The Hawks did not record a shutout all last season and haven't had one since Crawford pulled off the feat March 23, 2011 against the Panthers. The Blues made a game of it as T.J. Oshie followed McDonald's goal with one of his own, but the Hawks held on.
"We played a very uneven game, made some poor decisions early and you can't make mistakes against a team like Chicago," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said.
The Hawks started a season 3-0 for the first time since the 1972-73 campaign.
"It was important for us to come out to a strong start this year, especially given the schedule with all the road games," Kane said. "To start off 3-0, you couldn't ask for a better start."
ckuc@tribune.com
Twitter @ChrisKuc
Blackhawks silence Blues 3-2 in home opener
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