Watching the Blackhawks play hockey is reminiscent of tuning in a late-night movie.
The one where the prison warden is trying to get Jimmy Cagney to squeal by hammering away at his mind and body. It`s a test of wills.
Or maybe the film where John Wayne isn`t going to give an inch, even though the other side has more firepower. No one won the West by giving in, or the Norris Division for that matter.
”We`ll break a lot of teams in this league by bumping and grinding with them for 60 minutes,” said Troy Murray, doing his best Cagney and Wayne imitation.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were the latest victims of the Hawks, who pounded away Tuesday night until they found a way to break through for a 4-1 victory with the aid of two goals from Murray.
”To be in a 1-1 game after two periods on the road is pretty much textbook hockey,” said Mike McNeill, who stepped out of the background and scored one of the Hawks` three third-period goals. It came short-handed. The Hawks lead the NHL with eight in this department.
The book usually says a team isn`t going to win much on the road. But the Hawks have thrown away that book, having won nine of their last 12 away games to take possession of the best NHL road record (11-5-1).
”We`re not the most talented team in the league, but I`d like to think we have one of the hardest-working teams,” said coach Mike Keenan, who this time only had to pat winning goalie Ed Belfour (19-8-1) on the back instead of grabbing him there.
”Eddie was tremendous again,” said Steve Thomas, who added two assists and expressed the admiration that had some Hawks ready to rally behind Belfour after his recent clash with Keenan.
The only unsettling news for the Hawks was that Jeremy Roenick suffered a bruised shoulder in the first period when a Penguin ducked a check and Roenick slammed into the boards.
”He hasn`t been X-rayed yet, but we don`t think it`s more than a bruise,” Keenan said. ”Looks right now like he`ll miss a week.”
Roenick said he can heal quicker. ”I won`t be gone that long,” he said, all smiles.
There were plenty of laughs to go around as the Hawks increased their NHL-best point total to 44.
Steve Larmer is one ahead of that pace, scoring his team-leading 45th point Tuesday when he deflected Chris Chelios` shot past Penguins goalie Frank Pietrangelo for his 22nd goal. The goal upped the lead to 3-1 with 9:11 left in the game.
Pietrangelo protested to referee Kerry Fraser that Hawks center Mike Hudson had the goalie`s stick tied up at the time. Then Pietrangelo really got hot when Fraser laughed at him and he ended up ejected from the game for swearing at the official.
”Pittsburgh played well, don`t take that away from them,” Murray said.
”We just played hard and, when we do that for 60 minutes, it`s hard for anybody to beat us.”
Pittsburgh wing Phil Bourque saw more Hawks digging down than Penguins, who are 0-3-1 in the last four games and 2-9-1 over the last 12.
”It seems every night we have only three or four guys who want to win,” he said. ”We don`t have 20 guys like Chicago had tonight. Every guy they had wanted to win in the third period. You could see it.”
Murray`s goals were shining examples of hustle, not flashy skating plays drawn up on the blackboard.
He tied the score in the second period when defenseman Frantisek Kucera`s attempted pass kicked off Pietrangelo and up the slot where Murray was in the right place.
His second goal, putting the Hawks in front to stay with 11:38 left, was caused when Murray pressured defenseman Paul Coffey deep in the Penguins zone and forced a turnover. The puck hit off Murray, who then spun toward the crease.
Dirk Graham grabbed the loose puck and sent it to Thomas. The pass from Thomas to Murray found the center alone at the crease to score his eighth this year.
”We wanted to get back to our work ethic and we did,” Keenan said.
”Trent Yawney (back from his benching) was solid. McNeill, Hudson, Bob McGill, Jocelyn Lemieux. They all played well.
`Pittsburgh is a tremendous offensive club. They have six potential 30-goal scorers and we needed this kind of effort to shut them down.”
The Hawk defense was solid for the most part, but one first-period breakdown was enough to allow Pittsburgh its only score.
Kevin Stevens had a team-high 18th goal when defenseman Dave Manson failed to stop him in mid-zone. But John Cullen didn`t get one point to add to the NHL`s second-best total of 50 points.
”We just just kept building as the game went along,” McNeill said.
By the end, they had piled up more than enough blocks to bury the Penguins, who waddled off in search of easier game.
