ARGHHHHHHH! Hat Trick Denied! And Then Hat Trick Granted! A Roller Coaster of Emotions at the UC Tonight
The War Room screwed us again and denied Jonathan Toews a hat trick in the 2nd period of tonight’s Hawks/Penguins game, overturning the call on the ice that Tazer’s shot was a goal. Though the video was inconclusive, the ruling in Toronto was that Toews’ stick was above the cross-bar (i.e. a high stick) on his redirect.
The fans at the UC were livid, chanting “BULLSHIT,” many of them as upset about throwing their free Blackhawks hardhats onto the ice lauding what they thought was a hat trick, as they were about the overturning of the goal. Those of us at home threw things too, but it didn’t quite have the same meaning.
Things fell apart after that with ridiculous penalties being called on James Wisniewski and Cam Barker for “roughing,” and a goal being scored for the Penguins off of Barker’s skate in the closing seconds of the 2nd.
BUT the 3rd period was decidedly better when Tazer went on to score the hat trick anyway (his first of his NHL career no less). Take that Toronto! Still, the Hawks fell to the Penguins 5-4 in overtime.
As an aside though, Jack Skille played well and Antti Niemi denied the Penguins in the 3rd period when he took over for Cristobal Huet.