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player ready...It’s the playoffs, a rite of spring for the games of winter, and who would have thought that the Blackhawks will outlast the Bulls?
Hockey, prevailing in a city so captivated by basketball?
Well, they can put away the court at the United Center, but hold that ice. Michael Jordan and friends are finished, but those scruffy Hawks have done themselves proud.
They were down and half way out of their opening Stanley Cup round after losing the first two home games. But Friday night, the Hawks did everything the Bulls didn’t do the night before in the same building.
The Hawks didn’t blow any late leads.
The Hawks didn’t have any defensive breakdowns.
The Hawks won and advanced. They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2. No collapses this year, at least not yet, no need for excuses, and no Detroit right away either.
If the Hawks meet the mighty Red Wings, it will be for the conference finals. Presumably, Jeremy Roenick will be aboard by then.
What had been a typically close encounter-Hawks leading 2-1 on goals by Denis Savard and Eric Weinrich-changed when Patrick Poulin and Joe Murphy beat Felix (The Cat) Potvin in the third period.
The stands were packed Friday night too. The no-shows for previous games, showed. And, while the old Stadium across the street has been reduced to dust, the new colossus proved it can hold its noise too.
The United Center was loud, and it could get louder next week.
If the Hawks thought they might bury the Maple Leafs with emotion and noise early, it didn’t work. Of course, that wasn’t the nature of this series, anyway. Battered and bruised bodies on both sides told the story.
“My face looks like a baseball,” noticed Hawk defenseman Gary Suter. “Seams and all.”
Potvin fended off trouble almost immediately. There was Murphy firing off a 2-on-1 in the first minute, then Dirk Graham, then Jim Cummins with a bullet from his off side. In fact, for the longest while, the only thing to get past Potvin was Graham himself. He was driven into the net by Mats Sundin, but there was no call.
The Hawks probably weren’t surprised. When they discovered that Bill McCreary was the referee, they were not thrilled. As if the Hawks had been burning up the score sheet on powerplays. In three previous games, the Hawks were 0-for-the United Center with manpower advantages. And that had covered 14 attempts for what was the NHL’s best powerplay during the regular season.
However, Savard cut through the tension with his brilliant unassisted goal. The born-again Blackhawk picked up where he left off in Toronto Wednesday, when he skated like he was 24 instead of 34 while lifting the Hawks to a third-period rally.
Friday night, he took off in mid-ice, veered right and wound up for a slap shot as he neared the faceoff circle. But then Savard went the extra stride, thus eluding any chance of a stick check by Jamie Macoun. When Savard finally unloaded, he drilled it cleanly past Potvin’s stick side.
The Hawks had less than four minutes to enjoy it. On a Toronto powerplay, Mats Sundin fed Andreychuk, who had camped out in front of Ed Belfour after the Hawks had failed to clear the puck out of their end. It was 1-1. Also, it was not the best penalty killing shift in Brent Sutter’s Stanley Cup scrap book.
But there was Sutter, late in the second period, winning a faceoff to the right of Potvin. The puck rolled, on its edge, back to Weinrich at the point. He slapped at it without hesitation and the puck didn’t flatten out until it came to rest behind Potvin. He was surprised, maybe as surprised as Weinrich.
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Figures. Potvin had stoned Poulin again earlier in the period. Then Potvin stuffed Murphy after a deft powerplay pass from Savard. So the Hawks beat Potvin on a screened knuckleball. They’ll take it because they needed it. They were also overdue.