Sunday, December 23, 2007

Khabibulin saves, Toews scores, Sens lose

Despite holding a 3-1 lead at one point, the Ottawa Senators couldn't find any insurance markers against Nikolai Khabibulin who closed the door once his Chicago Black Hawks pulled even with the Sens on Saturday night.

As overtime ran its course and then the shootout, the Hawks seemed to gain inspiration from their goaltender, rewarding him for his hard work when Jonathon Toews put away the winning shoot out goal handing the Hawks a 4-3 road victory.

A disappointing finish for the 20,171 who gathered to provide the largest crowd of the year at Scotiabank Place, a crowd that at one point felt as thought two points were the home sides, until the Sens allowed coach Denis Savard a happy homecoming with an impresive come from behind victory.

The Hawks made the best of their power play opportunities as undisciplined play from the Sens came back to haunt them, those opportunities and some missed chances for Dany Heatley who was matched by Khabibulin almost shot for shot during the game, Heatley had more than enough chances to pick up a third goal for a hat trick, but the Chicago goaltender wasn't in the mood to assist Heatley in his task for the night.

Instead he provided enough time for the Hawks to battle back and take two points out of Ottawa purely from hard work and a little bit of luck.

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