Blackhawks 3, Hurricanes 2

The Carolina Hurricanes fell behind 2-0, tied the game on two nice scores by Alexander Semin, then allowed a shorthanded, game-winner to Jonathan Toews as they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2  at the United Center on Friday night.

It was the 11th loss in 16 games since the Olympic break for the Hurricanes.

The Canes went over 12 minutes to open the game without a single shot on goal, but Anton Khudobin was equal to the task and stopped everything he saw in the opening period.

After the scoreless first period, the Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second.

They scored first when Patrick Sharp broke into the Carolina zone alone and beat the goalie with a nifty backhander.  It was the second open breakaway of the period, but Khudobin was able to stop the first one.

Later in the period, Kris Versteeg made it 2-0, but the Canes did not give up.

Semin scored with just 38 seconds left to give the visitors some hope, then would score again to tie things up 2-2 early in the third with a powerplay tally.  But Toews would score shorthanded later during the same powerplay for the game-winner after a hot Eric Staal shot missed the net and bounced out past the blueline.

The Hawks' captain beat Khudobin with his backhand on a similar breakaway shot that Sharp made earlier.

The Canes would not be able to score another and even had trouble clearing their zone in the last two minutes plus, as they wanted to pull their goalie for an extra attacker and could not do so until it was too late.

They traveled to Winnipeg right after the game and will next face Paul Maurice and the Jets on Saturday night.

Game Notes:

• Andrej Sekera led the Canes with over 25 minutes of ice time.  Drayson Bowman was low man with 3:56.
• Brett Bellemore had a team best four hits.
• After that dreadful start, the Canes ended up outshooting the Hawks, 28-25.  They were led by Liles and Semin with four shots each.
• Including the third period of the Columbus game in which Carolina failed to generate a single shot, and the beginning of this game, the team went over 32 consecutive minutes without an official shot on goal.
• For postgame quotes check Canes PR.com.