June 27, 2013
By: Melissa Jensen
Round 3 - Los Angeles Kings
After plowing through Round 1 and gritting out the win in Round 2, the Blackhawks faced their biggest challenge yet, the Los Angeles Kings, the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Though the Hawks had won 2 of 3 regular season meetings with the Kings, this would be different, after all, this was the playoffs and the Kings wanted to reign as champion! Much of the talk going into this Conference Final match up, as it had been against Detroit, was the goaltending. LA was the reigning champion in large part to their goaltender and most recent Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick. A fitting name for a goalie of his caliber as he is considered "Elite" and one of the quickest, most talented young goaltenders in the league. Again there were doubts as to whether or not the Blackhawks netminder Corey Crawford could keep up with the opposition despite his level of play in the first two rounds. Other concerns were that the ice at the United Center would not be up to snuff due to the Rolling Stones being in the midst of a series of concerts there (causing Games 1 & 2 to be back-to-back).
In game 1 Chicago, still riding the momentum of the amazing come from behind victory over Detroit in Round 2, appeared to be dominating LA, but even with the shots on goal sitting at 17-2 at the end of the first period, the score was 1-0 Kings. The Hawks took the first intermission to re-group and shake off that 1 goal and finally showed that they had at 12:29 of the second period when Johnny Oduya shot the puck at the far pad of Quick and Patrick Sharp was able to pick up the rebound and bury it with a quick wrist shot. Score 1-1. Just 4 minutes later Marian Hossa was able to deflect a shot past Quick to make the score 2-1 and that's where the score would remain through the third period as the Hawks took a 1-0 series lead.
The Blackhawks had now won 4 games in a row, 3 of those on home ice and they were showing no signs of slowing down as the first period of Game 2 began. Just 1:54 into the game Andrew Shaw opened the scoring with a wrist shot that beat Quick. The Kings peppered Crawford with 13 shots, but all were turned aside and with just 50.4 left in the first period, Brent Seabrook sent a slap shot right past the blocker side of Quick to make the score 2-0. In the second period Chicago scored twice more at 7:11 (Bryan Bickell, PPG) and 9:20 (Michal Handzus). That was enough for Kings Coach Darryl Sutter, Quick was relieved by back-up goaltender Jonathan Bernier. It was the first time since April 23, 2010 that Quick had been pulled from a playoff game. With the fresh Bernier in goal the Hawks were not able to put anymore pucks into the net, but at the other end of the ice the Kings were picking up their game. Jeff Carter netted a slap shot at 18:57 of the second period and Tyler Toffoli beat Crawford at 18:58 of the third period to make the final score 4-2. The Blackhawks now lead the series 2-games-to-0 headed to LA. While they may have delighted in being able to chase Jonathan Quick from the net in Game 2, Chicago knew he would be back when they got to LA and they knew he would be strong. "He'll bounce back," Bickell said after the game. When asked if he thought his team could break the Kings 14 game home ice winning streak, Patrick Sharp said, 'We know how well the Kings pay in their building. The series is just getting started really."
In Game 3 in LA, the Kings showed the kind of dominance that led them to the Stanley Cup the year before. Chicago looked like a completely different team getting caught on their heels and only managing to get 10 shots on net in the first 40 minutes of play. Justin Williams claimed the first goal of the game at 3:21 of the first period with a quick wrist shot off a feed from Slava Voynov. Voynov then netted a goal of his own at 6:37 of the second period with a slap shot from the right point. Soon after Chicago's Duncan Keith was sent to the box for a hi-sticking double minor after taking a one handed swing from behind on Jeff Carter that caught him in the face, split his lip and knocked out several teeth. Keith was upset about a tussle the two had had near the net that had caused one of his gloves to come off and when he went to retrieve it, Carter slashed him with his stick on the bare hand. While Keith admitted that he did intentionally swing at Carter after the slashing, he maintained that he did not intend to hit him in the face. The Hawks were able to kill the penalty and with just 33.6 seconds left in the period Bryan Bickell scored his 7th goal of the playoffs with a wrap around shot to put Chicago on the board. The Kings came back in the third to score at 19:32 and win the game 3-1 and cut Chicago's series lead in half.
On the day off between Games 3 & 4 Duncan Keith was ordered to a phone hearing by the Department of Player Safety for his hi-stick to Jeff Carter the day before. Keith was found to have intentionally made the hit, was labeled a repeat offender (due to an infraction the year before) and was suspended for 1 game. The Blackhawks would have to face Game 4 without their number 1 defenseman.
LA had now won 15 straight games at home and were happily looking to make it 16 and even up the series with the Blackhawks before heading back to Chicago for Game 5. Feeling the momentum from winning Game 3, the Kings came out swinging and Voynov netted the first goal at 3:28 of the first period, but the Hawks were not going down without a fight. At 13:16 Bryan Bickell scored his 8th goal of the post-season to tie it up. Not to be out done, the Kings came out in the second period and scored their second goal at 2:12(Dustin Penner). Just 2 minutes later it looked as if the Kings would take a commanding 3-1 lead when Justin Williams got a breakaway chance, but Crawford foiled his plans with a quick poke check to keep the deficit at 1. Niklas Hjalmarsson took a shot through traffic at the other end and it was deflected past Quick by the screening Bickell, but it slowed enough that just to make absolutely sure it got across the goal line before Quick could stop it, a fast stick by Patrick Kane helped the puck to the back of the net as he leaped head first over the sprawled goaltender. "I told Bicksy I was kind of sorry I stole it from him," Kane said. "It might have went in. [It's] kind of instinctive when you see the puck there, to stick your stick in and touch it." The teams came into the third period all tied up at 2, but as the Kings got stuck on a bad line change Oduya got the puck and found Handzus in the open ice. As he skated toward the goal Handzus slid the puck swiftly to Hossa who blasted a one-timer past Quick for the Hawks to take the lead. The Hawks effectively shut the Kings down for the remainder of the game, only allowing 2 shots on goal and doing what no other team had done in the playoffs this year, they defeated the Kings on home ice to take a 3-games-to-1 lead and a chance to clinch the series on home ice.
In Chicago the fans were ecstatic about the Hawks Game 4 win and when the team took the ice for Game 5 they were met by deafening roars of approval and support. The crowd only got louder as Duncan Keith, in his return from suspension, opened the scoring with a slap shot that managed to seep through Quicks pads at the five hole. Just over 2 minutes later Patrick Kane netted a wrist shot to make the score 2-0. LA's Dwight King scored the only goal of the second period at 9:28. Just 3:34 into the third Anze Kopitar put a wrist shot past Crawford to tie the game, but at 16:08 Kane got his second goal of the night to regain the lead. With about 15 second left in the game, the Hawks were feeling pretty secure in their victory over the Kings...they shouldn't have. Bickell inadvertently iced the puck bringing the faceoff to the Blackhawks end. The kings won the draw, Carter got the puck to Voynov who sent it to Kopitar for a shot that deflected off of centerman Mike Richards and into the net wit 9.4 seconds left in the game. The crowd that had been deafening throughout the night was nearly silent, the air had been sucked out of the Madhouse. "I honestly don't think there's a worse feeling in hockey, when you're nine seconds away," Toews said. "You know you have to get the puck out. Two little bounces go against you, next thing you know it's in your net. Your heart sinks pretty quick. We just tried to tell each other in the locker room that we can't be thinking about what could have been, we have to just turn the page, get over it. It's the only way you're going to move on and win the game." The teams went into overtime with the same objective: be the first to score. They were not making it easy on each other though and one OT period was not sufficient to determine a winner. "Our attitude was pretty much 'So what, we gotta keep playing and we'll win this one'," said Crawford. Both teams tired, they took the ice for a second period of OT. Just over halfway through the period Kane and Hawks captain Jonathan Toews had a scoring chance that was thwarted by a double slash to Kane by Kings forward Justin Williams that was not called. LA managed to get the puck back deep into Chicago's defensive zone, but Bickell was there to chip it out and Kane & Toews were off on a 2-on-1. Toews slid the puck across the ice to Kane who's wrist shot beat Quick at 11:40 of 2OT for a Hat Trick and the series clinching goal. Yet again the Blackhawks had solved a goalie they were not supposed to be able to solve. During the 5 game series Crawford and Quick faced almost the same number of shots on goal, Crawford with 137, Quick with 136. Crawford allowed 10 goals all series for a .927 save percentage, Quick allowed 14 for a .897 save percentage. Wait! Which one of these guys was supposed to be the "Elite" goaltender?
The Chicago Blackhawks were headed to the Stanley Cup Final where they would face the Boston Bruins, who they had not played in nearly 2 years and who had just completed a 4 game sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins who finished in the league second only to the Blackhawks themselves. The Bruins only allowed 2 goals in 4 games and had another "Elite" goaltender ready to stop everything they threw at him... this was definitely going to be the biggest challenge of the season.
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