When Michel Goulet dreamed as a boy of scoring a lights-out goal in the National Hockey League playoffs, this wasn`t exactly what he had in mind.
His imagination had him floating down left wing, then suddenly flicking his stick like a whip. The puck would travel too fast and fluid for the goalie to reach with pad, glove or stick and bury itself in the net`s twine.
But reality was much different Monday night at the Stadium in the Blackhawks` 4-2 victory over Edmonton. Goulet dragged 6-foot-3-inch, 200-pound defenseman Craig Muni on his back like a grand piano as he skated netward. He slipped out of Muni`s wrestling hold just enough to extend his stick in the final minutes of a 2-2 tie.
He felt Steve Larmer`s pass deflect off his stick, didn`t even see it happen because his head was on its way to being cracked on the ice when Muni kicked his skates from under him at the same time he made contact with the puck. And he only knew instinctively, as well as by the crowd reaction, that the eventual game-winner was in the net with 3 minutes 41 seconds left.
This was a lights-out goal he never dreamed of scoring.
”I`m dizzy,” Goulet said a half-hour later. ”Got a headache. I was blacked out just a few seconds there. Muni caught me with an elbow.”
Pass the aspirin. The Oilers need a few bottles themselves. They are down 2-0 in the Campbell Conference finals with the series shifting to Edmonton`s Northlands Coliseum for Games 3 and 4 Wednesday and Friday nights.
”They showed tonight they won`t back down,” Hawks defenseman Steve Smith said. ”They`ll keep coming at us.”
More importantly, Bill Ranford will be back. The Oilers` goalie didn`t lose. His team did. Ranford made 30 saves to get Edmonton to the last period ahead 2-1, even though the Oilers had had only eight shots.
He finished with 41 saves, 29 more than Hawks goalie Ed Belfour. Edmonton`s 14 shots equalled their all-time playoff low, first set in the previous round against Vancouver.
Do you get the idea this isn`t Edmonton`s year? It sure seems like the Hawks are rolling to their first Stanley Cup final in 19 years and the chance to win it all for the first time in 31 years. They`ve now won a club-record nine straight games.
A victory Wednesday would allow them to tie the 1970 Bruins NHL record for most consecutive victories in one playoff year.
”Until we win the fourth game, you`re never in control,” Larmer said.
”Ranford is a great goaltender and made us work for every goal we got.”
Larmer scored the first two, but not until Edmonton had charged ahead 2-0 with opportunistic first-period goals by Anatoli Semenov and Bernie Nicholls. The first came on a breakaway and the second when a forecheck forced a Hawk turnover.
But Larmer pounded in a Brian Noonan power-play pass to the right post late in the first period. Then followed a frustrating second period in which Ranford stopped all 18 shots at him.
But 5:59 into the third period, Goulet found Larmer behind defenseman Kevin Lowe and in front of the crease. Larmer batted the chance under Ranford, one of his four goals in this series.
”I feel good right now physically and mentally,” said Larmer, who suffered through a subpar regular season offensively. ”The big reason is everybody is playing well on this team now.”
Defenseman Chris Chelios chimed in. ”We play a team game and Steve struggled along with the team all year. It wasn`t a great year for us.”
The accent there should be on the past tense.
”This is one of the first times all year I can remember when we stuck to our game plan the whole 60 minutes,” Smith said. ”We didn`t get overanxious and try for everything on one play.”
Luck played a part twice in this game for Belfour.
Petr Klima missed the net with a tough-angle shot from deep in the zone in the final minutes, or else Edmonton would have had a 3-1 lead with minimal effort.
His four-leaf clover was even greener in the third period when Kelly Buchberger`s shot from the right side went under him at the right post and rolled just outside the goal line and out on the left side. Mark Lamb sent it back the other way with a followup shot and the puck again traveled inches outside the crease until it finally landed safely under Belfour.
”We played great in our defensive zone,” Goulet said. ”And we never stopped coming at the other end.”
Oiler penalties helped them sustain that pressure. Once again, the Hawks could crow they had learned their lesson, skating on nine power plays to Edmonton`s five. The Hawks` penalty-killers shut down each of these vulnerable spots, even short two skaters for 49 seconds late in the first period.
”That`s one of the best games I ever saw Ranford play,” Goulet said.
”But these first two games are maybe the best I`ve ever seen Larmer play.”
Larmer, though, left town with a warning rather than a boast.
”We`re not really dominating them that much,” he said.
Maybe if the Hawks can win six more in a row, make it 15 straight and a championship, Larmer will be satisfied. But he`s a tough guy to please.
