Thirty-six years ago to the day, the Blackhawks hoisted the Stanley Cup for the last time.
Wednesday night, they should have hoisted a white flag.
It took the Colorado Avalanche a stretch of 4 minutes 44 seconds last year to bombard Jeff Hackett with four goals. The Avalanche needed 19 minutes in the first period Wednesday night at McNichols Sports Arena to get four against Hackett–who had little help–en route to a 6-0 shutout in the opener of their first-round Western Conference playoff series. Game 2 is here Friday.
The loss was the Hawks’ worst in the playoffs since losing to Minnesota by the same score in 1991.
The Hawks played without top-line center Alex Zhamnov, who was a game-time scratch because of a sprained right ankle. He probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference the way Colorado came out firing.
After Hackett made a highlight diving save on Peter Forsberg early in the first period, the Avalanche erupted behind goals from Mike Keane, Sandis Ozolinsh and two from Forsberg.
Mike Ricci made it 5-0 at 16:14 of the second period, and Chris Terreri replaced Hackett, who hadn’t allowed more than four goals in a regular-season game. Claude Lemieux finished it off with a goal in the third period.
Hawks captain Chris Chelios had a lot to say to his troops, giving a 5-minute speech about heart. After the second period, Chelios engaged Avalance coach Marc Crawford in a shouting match.
All the heart in the world wasn’t going to beat Colorado goalie Patrick Roy as he moved within one of Billy Smith’s Stanley Cup record of 88 victories.
With the shutout, Roy hasn’t allowed a playoff goal in the last 213 minutes 11 seconds.
