So, who’s afraid of the big bad Wings? Not the Blackhawks. Not any more. Not after Thursday night’s 5-2 victory prevented a four-game sweep and sent the Western Conference Stanley Cup finals back to Detroit for Game 5 Sunday night.
Of course, the Hawks understand they’re not out of the woods yet. “All we did tonight was survive to play another day,” said Murray Craven. But they have found a sliver of light in the darkness that had engulfed them after the Red Wings won three straight games to open the best-of-seven series.
The question now is whether they can follow that little beam all the way home to the Stanley Cup finals.
“They haven’t lost a home game in the playoffs,” noted defenseman Chris Chelios. “For us every game is do or die. We played desperate tonight.”
“We wanted to win this game,” said Joe Murphy, who was one of those most responsible for making it happen. “We wanted to go back to Detroit.”
Murphy and Denis Savard had two goals apiece as the Hawks jumped to a 5-0 lead and drove Detroit goalie Mike Vernon to the bench early in the second period.
Hawks goalie Ed Belfour lost his shutout in the third period when Chris Chelios inadvertently batted the puck past his own goalie.
“I’m not happy about it, but we were up 5-0,” said Chelios. “It was a reaction play and I made a mistake.”
The Hawks didn’t make many of them, and that probably includes the penalty that Sergei Krivokrasov took just 18 seconds into the game. The eager rookie ran right over Vernon behind the Wings’ cage, and the Hawks had to defend a power play before some of the crowd of 22,738 had settled into their seats.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” insisted Krivokrasov. “I went to play the puck and he was right there. I couldn’t stop that suddenly.”
When the Hawks killed the penalty it seemed to energize them.
“It’s always big to kill a penalty, especially against Detroit and that early in the game,” said defenseman Eric Weinrich. “It might have started a little momentum. But I sure wouldn’t want to do that every game against them.”
The Hawks eventually had to kill off three more penalties in the opening period, which made the fact that they rolled to a 3-0 lead all the more impressive.
Craven assisted on two of the three goals, including the one by Savard that got the Hawks off to a 1-0 lead. Craven even impressed himself with that one. “It was kind of a nice play, I think,” he admitted.
At one point while he was trying to stickhandle through traffic the puck got caught between Craven’s arm and his equipment. “I just waited until I could get into the open and drop it,” he said. As soon as the puck hit the ice he dished it to Savard in the slot.
It was the fourth game in a row in which the Hawks had scored first, but they never before had been able to build on it. That’s why coach Darryl Sutter exclaimed, “Murphy’s first goal was a huge goal. A two-goal lead is a lot different than one.”
It came on a pass off the boards by Keith Carney that sprung the Hawks’ winger for a breakaway. When Vernon came out to cut down the angle, Murphy fired it past him on the glove side. It was the first time in the series that either team had led by more than a goal.
Craven then set up Dirk Graham for the goal that made it 3-0 and pretty much decided the game. Graham had a semi-breakaway, but the defense caught up to him and he couldn’t get off a decent shot. Instead, the puck went to the boards behind the net where “both Denis and Murray did a great job of forechecking,” said Graham. “I curled back in the slot and Murray got the puck in front and it was just a tap-in for me. That was the easy part.”
Savard’s second goal came on a breakaway when Chelios not only cleared the puck from in front of Belfour, but also banked it ahead off the boards to spring the little center.
Murphy’s second came on a five-on-three power play. “It was a great pass by Denis,” said Murphy, who earlier had tried to set up Savard for the hat trick. Savvy missed that one, but Murphy could hardly miss from where he was standing.
The game turned nasty after that, and Detroit had three misconduct penalties in the final period. “It’s obvious what was going on,” said Chelios. “People were out there trying to hurt each other. But next game they’re obviously going to be more disciplined. They’ll be a lot better than they were tonight, and we have to be better too.”
“Our backs are against the wall, and they will be there until this series is over,” said Graham.
