Blackhawks Head West With 2-0 Series Lead
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 3, 2013 1:30PM
Given all the hyperbole written about Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick leading up to the Stanley Cup Western Conference Finals, conventional wisdom held the Blackhawks would have been lucky to head west with a split of their first two games at the United Center. (We're looking at you, Steve Rosenbloom.)
Instead, the Hawks hold a 2-0 lead after Sunday night's thorough and convincing 4-2 victory that saw Kings coach Darryl Sutter pull Quick in the second period. Quick went 34 straight playoff games without allowing more than three goals and hadn't been pulled from a playoff game since April 11, 2010.
The Hawks scored early by going low on Quick. Andrew Shaw struck first for Chicago 1:56 into the game with a wrist shot set up by beautiful passes from Brandon Saad and Viktor Stalberg. Brent Seabrook made it 2-0 with 51 seconds remaining in the period after Jonathan Toews stole the puck and passed it to Marian Hossa, who found a trailing Seabrook for a slap shot between Quick's legs.
Bryan Bickell made it 3-0 7:11 into the second period when a missed shot by Patrick Kane hit him, then was tipped in accidentally by the Kings' Robyn Regehr. It marked Bickell's sixth goal of the postseason; he scored nine in the regular season. Michal Handzus's slap shot past Quick's stick hand side a few minutes later made it 4-0. By then, Sutter had seen enough and put Jonathan Bernier in relief of the defending Conn Smythe Trophy winner. A Jeff Carter goal made the score 4-1 heading into the second intermission.
The third period saw the frustrated Kings mucking it up a bit when Colin Fraser knocked down Toews. Michal Rozsival came to the aide of the Hawks captain and, when Kyle Clifford started punching Toews, Corey Crawford entered the fray and pulled him off of Toews. The ensuing penalties resulted in a Kings power play and Tyler Toffoli scored to make it 4-2.
Los Angeles outshot the Hawks 31-26 in the game, but Crawford maintained his poise, stopped several point blank shots and had plenty of help in front of him, as Chicago killed four of five power play opportunities. Toffoli's goal marked the first power play goal Chicago allowed at home in the postseason.
The Hawks caught a break when Mike Richards, the Kings' leading scorer, sat out with an upper body injury related to Dave Bolland's late hit on him in Game 1. But their biggest break was facing Quick on back-to-back nights. Quick's record on the second game of back-to-backs is a middling 8-8-3; Crawford's 15-3-2.
The Hawks smell blood, but they have to take care of business Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Don't expect Quick to have consecutive sub-par games, but Joel Quenneville said after the game they'll continue with what's worked so far in the series.
"We had some nice shots," Quenneville said. "We had some high-quality stuff off the rush, as well. I still think that's going to be an ongoing challenge with him. Some nights they go in."
Game 3 is 8 p.m. Tuesday.