The Black Hawks were strong of heart Friday night. They also were sick to their stomach and plagued by more injuries than you can shake a hockey stick at.
Considering the circumstances, the haggard Chicagoans played one of their best games of the season. It just wasn`t good enough.
”How can I criticize?” asked coach Orval Tessier after the Hawks faltered in the final period and lost 4-3 to Buffalo, dropping out of first place in the Norris Division for first time since Oct. 21.
St. Louis` 6-2 victory over Winnipeg gave the Blues a one-point lead in the division.
”I`M A POOR loser, but they gave 300 percent,” Tessier said. ”We had seven regulars not playing. We designed something and they did the best job they possibly could. In the third period, there were some obvious mistakes.
”So what? We only had four defensemen and the guys all were working their butts off.
”We thought we`d have Behn Wilson (who missed his second straight game because of the flu). He said yesterday he thought he`d be able to fly in today. He never showed up and he never called.
”Then before the game, I found out that (defensemen) Doug Wilson and Keith Brown couldn`t play. Doug had the flu so bad that he turned green when I used him on our first power play. Keith took a cortisone shot yesterday for his bruised hip, and when I used him at the start I could tell he was much too sore to play.
”WE WERE DOWN 3-1 and we made it 3-2 (on Steve Larmer`s 27th goal). We were down 4-2 and we made it 4-3 in the last minute (on Bob Murray`s 100th goal of his National Hockey League career).”
In the dressing room, Murray wasn`t celebrating his milestone. He was throwing up. He too had come down with the flu.
Buffalo`s Gil Perreault maneuvered around rookie Marc Bergevin for a breakaway goal which gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead 7 minutes 36 seconds into the third period. Twenty-nine seconds later, Sean McKenna scored on the rebound of a shot by Mike Ramsey to make the score 3-1.
The fourth Buffalo goal, the game-winner, was scored by Dave Andreychuk with 3:42 to play.
”Brent Peterson made a good play to force their defenseman (Jack O`Callahan) to make a turnover,” said Andreychuk.
”Their goalie (rookie Warren Skorodenski) seemed to be second-guessing himself in deciding what to do. I tried to shoot for the top corner and it went in.
”CHICAGO PLAYED a very good game defensively. When we won (6-3) in Chicago last month, they gave us all kinds of chances. Tonight, they didn`t give us hardly anything.”
”In the third period, we realized that even though they had a lot of players hurt we had to give that extra effort or we weren`t even going to get a tie,” said McKenna.
The Hawks` penalty-killing was brilliant. They erased six infractions, three in the scoreless first period.
Denis Savard gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead with a breakaway goal 36 seconds into the second period.
Hannu Virta`s shot from the right point tied the score at 4:23 of the period.
AFTER USING Tom Barrasso in goal for 14 straight games, Buffalo`s general manager and coach, Scotty Bowman, finally gave last season`s Rookie of the Year the night off. Replacing him was Bob Sauve, who made his first start since Dec. 16 when he was involved in a 2-2 tie with Vancouver.
”There was a lot of pressure on Sauve being out so long,” said Bowman.
”He played well and Chicago played a tight-checking game against us. I`m happy to take the win. For a while, I wondered.”
