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 Right winger Marian Hossa continued his red-hot ways as of late
-- scoring the first goal of the game and his seventh in the last
four contests -- as Chicago earned a 3-1 win over the New Jersey
Devils at the United Center.
"You have to be patient against that team and play the right way,
something we were stressing going into the game," Chicago coach Joel
Quenneville said. "We didn't change how we had to play and approach
it.
"(Hossa) scoring a big power-play goal right off the bat helped us
and a very timely second goal, as well."
Hossa is now third on the Blackhawks in points (42) and tied for
second in goals (17).
The victory came in front of the Blackhawks' second-largest crowd of
the season (22,186). Chicago wraps up its two-game regular season
series with the Devils with an undefeated 2-0 mark.
Hossa scored the tying goal to make it 1-1 early in the third
period. Later in the same period, captain and center Jonathan Toews
scored the go-ahead goal and right-winger Kris Versteeg added an
empty-net tally to wrap up Chicago's scoring.
 Chicago improved to 34-18-4, while New Jersey (21-25-9) lost its
third straight game.
"I thought throughout the whole game that we did a lot of things
that we had wanted to do," New Jersey coach Lou Lamoriello said.
"The effort was excellent."
But there was also a downside to what Lamoriello saw, as well.
"I thought we were just trading chances, getting shots on the net
tonight," he said. "We didn't capitalize when we had a power play
and unfortunately gave up a power-play goal at the beginning of the
period and then gave up a second goal."
Chicago goalie Corey Crawford stopped all but one of New Jersey's 26
shots on goal. Devils counterpart Cory Schneider stopped 32 of
Chicago's 34 shots.
"They're one of those teams, that you see it almost every game, if
they're down, they find a way to get back in it," Schneider said of
the Blackhawks. "I wish I hadn't given up that one so early on the
power play maybe, but they kept coming."
"It's disappointing to let that one slip away. You're not getting
any points. I thought we had a really good effort and it's just too
bad."
New Jersey defenseman Peter Harrold scored his second goal of the
season on a slap shot past Crawford at 15:30 of the first period to
give New Jersey a 1-0 advantage.
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After a scoreless second period, Hossa tied the game (17th goal of
the season)
But just 1:27 into the third period, Hossa sank a 35-foot power-play
slap shot past a screened Schneider to tie things up.
Hossa, who had scored two goals in each of the three previous games,
almost made it four games in a row at 4:10 of the third period.
Hossa took a shot, but Toews finished the puck's path into the net
for his 16th goal of the season, putting Chicago ahead 2-1.
Chicago sealed the game with 44 seconds remaining when Versteeg, in
only his second game back after missing more than a month with a
broken left hand, tallied an empty-net goal (10th) to wrap things
up.
NOTES: Despite being removed as American winners of the Little
League World Series, the Blackhawks hosted the Jackie Robinson West
team Friday. The event had been scheduled for several months prior
to Wednesday when the team was forced to forfeit its entire season.
... Healthy scratches for Chicago were D Tim Erixon (for the third
straight game), RW Ben Smith (first time this season, hasn't scored
a point in the last 19 games) and D Michal Rozsival. Scratches for
New Jersey were RW Martin Havlat and D Mark Fraser. ... D Kyle
Cumiskey and F Ryan Hartman, recalled Thursday from Rockford (Ill.)
of the AHL, both played. For Hartman, a suburban Chicago native, it
was his NHL debut. For Cumiskey, it was his first NHL game since
Feb. 9, 2011, when he was with Colorado. ... New Jersey RW Michael
Ryder was back in the lineup after missing the last seven games as a
healthy scratch.
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