The Blackhawks came so achingly close in this one, a 3-2 loss in overtime that changed the complexion of this series in the blink of an eye.
It’s going to take a monumental turnaround and probably a debilitating gastrointestinal problem for a few of the Red Wings for the Hawks to come back.
Detroit’s winning goal in overtime Tuesday night was a thing of beauty, if such a thing can be said of a goal that likely crushed the Hawks’ goal of getting to the Stanley Cup finals.
Jiri Hudler picked up a loose puck, slid it to Valtteri Filppula, who sent it to Mikael Samuelsson, who beat Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. It sounds like a United Nations roll call, but it was the difference between a tied series and a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
“There’s a big difference between 1-1 and 2-0,” Hawks forward Patrick Sharp had said before the game.
Yes there is, and it’s very difficult to see how his team comes back to win this series against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Tuesday was another example why the Red Wings are the Red Wings and the Hawks are something short of that. Detroit doesn’t make many mistakes. Detroit’s players always seem to know where each other is on the ice, at all times, in every situation. The Blackhawks have a long way to go to get to that level. There’s no shame in that. So does the rest of the NHL.
The series returns to Chicago for two games, and the Hawks are hoping that home ice will give them something that the Joe Louis Arena ice couldn’t. Coach Joel Quenneville talked about hoping to “recapture some confidence and enthusiasm.” There was very little of that after Tuesday’s loss.
“It’s a tough one,” Quenneville said tiredly afterward.
Tuesday night gave us perhaps the best example yet of why Jonathan Toews is the Hawks’ captain. Great players rise to the occasion when their team needs them the most. He had both of the Hawks’ goals.
His second goal came on a deflection of Kris Versteeg’s shot with 7:40 left in the game. It tied the game 2-2, and the Hawks had every reason to believe they had a shot.
Speaking of shots, the Hawks had 19 shots in the first period, which could be looked upon two different ways, depending on your Blackhawk Confidence Level. The optimist said, Boy! Nineteen shots, what an outburst! The pessimist said, Nineteen shots and all they got was one goal?
But that one goal was pretty. Toews, set up to the side of the Red Wings’ net, deflected the puck off the skate of defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and past unsuspecting goalie Chris Osgood.
Toews is skilled, yes, but he has a knack of making things happen when his team needs something the most. Whoever came up with the cliche “You can’t teach that” had Toews in mind.
His first goal gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead for the second game in a row. But just like Game 1, the Red Wings, undaunted, came back to tie it in the first period, this time on Brian Rafalski’s power-play goal. Whether Khabibulin was screened is open to debate. What isn’t open to debate is the fact that Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom was camped in front of him.
Even though he didn’t score in regulation, fellow Boy Wonder Patrick Kane was much more active Tuesday night after not taking a shot in Game 1.
“He looked like he was having too much fun out there,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.
After a face-off in his own zone, Hawks defenseman Brent Seabrook tried to make a pass but instead bounced the puck off the Wings’ Dan Cleary, whose momentum was taking in the direction of the Hawks’ goal. He gained control of the puck, then beat Khabibulin with a wrist shot to make it 2-1 with about six minutes left in the second period.
Seabrook struggled controlling the puck in Game 1, as well, leading to a Detroit goal in that 5-2 loss.
After those 19 shots in the first, the Hawks had six in the second. Under siege or with time on his hands, Osgood has been very good so far in this series. Better than Khabibulin.
The Blackhawks have responded well to tough times in the past. And they responded well Tuesday night after Sunday’s debacle. Just not enough.
“This is a team that’s going to be very difficult to put away,” Babcock said.
During a stoppage in play with less than three minutes left in regulation, they played clips from the movie “Rudy,” the ultimate underdog story, on the Joe Louis Arena scoreboard. Um, aren’t the Hawks the underdog in this series?
There wasn’t any question by the end of the night.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
Red Wings lead series 2-0
Game 3: 7 p.m. Friday at United Center, Versus
Game 4: 2 p.m. Sunday at Hawks
Game 5: 6:30 p.m. May 27 at Detroit*
Game 6: 7 p.m. May 30 at Hawks*
Game 7: 6:30 p.m. June 1 at Detroit*
Game 1: Red Wings 5, Blackhawks 2
*-if necessary; all games on Versus except Game 4 (WMAQ-Ch. 5)
