A determined Chicago Blackhawks team beat Tampa Bay 2-1 on Wednesday night to go up 1-0 in Stanley Cup play. Not an easy win, but most ‘Hawks wins this postseason haven’t been.
While most Blackhawks scorers were held in check for two periods, Teuvo Teravainen wasn’t going to squander an opportunity to even the game. Teravainen used Marcus Kruger’s screen to slap a normally easy save past Ben Bishop to tie the game at 1. After a Patrick Kane blast nearly found the net but sailed wide, Antoine Vermette went high on Bishop, slapping the crossbar en route to another Blackhawks score. That would close out the scoring as the Blackhawks stole home ice from Tampa Bay, a dangerous position for Lightning players to be in – especially when easy goals are coming from unknown sources.
Alex Killorn opened the scoring with an easy tip-in at the 15:29 mark, assisted by Valtteri Filppula and Anton Stralman. The experienced Blackhawks squad, 32-0-0 when leading after two periods, wasn’t fazed. They fought off several great scoring chances over the last 15 minutes of first period play to keep the score at 1-0.
As the second period opened, Alex Killorn’s high sticking penalty gave Chicago an opportunity to capitalize on the one man advantage. However, Tampa Bay killed the penalty and regained their man, trading hard fought shots with Chicago until a Kris Versteeg got tagged with interfering with Ben Bishop, giving Tampa Bay a golden opportunity with Chicago missing a skater. Penalty killed.
Both teams headed into the second intermission with 31 shots on goal combined, but when the third period opened, a more determined Blackhawks squad entered the rink. Hits came harder, shots were more calculated but most importantly, the Blackhawks ended Ben Bishop’s 113:28 shutout streak by respecting the process which has given them two Stanley Cups in five years.
Chicago also managed to end Tampa Bay’s 41-0-2 winning streak when up after two periods, 9-0 in the playoffs. Thanks to Duncan Keith’s tireless 29:15 ice time, veteran leadership and solid overall goalie play by Corey Crawford, A Game 2 victory could Chicago in position to hoist the Stanley Cup at home.
For the game, both teams missed all power play chances while Tampa Bay held a 30-27 edge in faceoffs won. Tampa Bay was more aggressive on the boards, hitting Blackhawks players 29 times. Statistically speaking, Tampa Bay won the game on paper, but Chicago came away holding the only stat that mattered — a Game 1 victory.
