The Blackhawks were back in the United Center, Sunday night to face the pesky Wild in game 5 of their second round series. The Blackhawks were coming off two unimpressive games in St. Paul that allowed the Wild back into the series. The good news was that the Wild still can't seem to win a game on the road, and the Hawks have home ice in the series.
The game started off on quite a sour note with the Blackhawks taking an early penalty, and got worse late in the first period when the Hawks surrendered the lead. The second period was much better for Hawks fans, as they out shot the Wild 15-6 and tied the game, continuing that momentum into the third period, where they took the lead for good. The game was fairly uneventful but the Blackhawks were able to take care of the task at hand, giving them a chance to close out the series in Minnesota on Tuesday night.
- The Hawks finally tied up the game on Ronnie Pickle's 6th of the playoff, on the powerplay, half way through the second period. They were out shooting the Wild 10-3 at the time. Sharp threw a long shot on net, Bickell tipped it straight down and past Bryzgalov. This goal tied Bickell for the league lead in goal scoring.
- Peter Regin played and looked good. He had a few good chances and he also set up some chances. Remind me what was so undesirable about this guy, again? Oh, lets not forget that he was the 3rd star of the game. How man times has Bollig been named a star in these playoffs.
- The Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead about 5 minutes into the third period. Two very important events made the shift for the Hawks. The first was Toews laying a pretty big hit on Granlund, and the second was Hossa's head fake on Granlund. They eventually lead to a Sharp shot that bounced around and ended up in the feet of Toews. We all know how that story ends.
- Patrick Kane made a huge play late in the third, with Bryzgalov on the bench, as he out raced a Wild defender to negate icing and keep the clock running.
- Corey Crawford had a HUGE game. After a mediocre game followed up by a bit of a stinker, he was enormous in this one. The only goal given up was more on the defense than anything.
- The Blackhawks housed the Wild at the dots, winning 57%. Granlund was the only Wild player over 50%
- Patrick Sharp didn't score but he assisted on both goals. For whatever reason, he is in a funk, though.
- Cody McCormick was listed as having 8 hits. Both Niederreiter and Cooke had 6 each. The official scorer must have been on a cocaine bender.
- Duncan Keith was unspectacular in this one. He was listed as having 4 giveaways, and made a stupid decision on the Haula goal.
- Let me also take a swipe at the NBC scheduling crew for not only making the game an 8:00 Sunday night start, but then putting the damn game on MSNBC in favor of the stupid Rangers/Pens game. Nevermind that it was a beautiful Mothers Day and a Sunday afternoon game would have been perfect. Oh but it gets better. The game was apparently by word of mouth only, because none of the channel guides listed the game. Why is this important, you ask? So people that have lives can DVR the game. So not only were people not able to find the game, but they weren't able to record it either. Fail from top to fucking bottom.
- The Wild took a 1-0 when the Hawks (more specifically Keith, Seabrook, Handzus and Kane) decided to LET Eric Haula skate up the rink, take a shot, and then get a whack at the rebound. Crawford made the first and second save, but the puck popped up in the air and barely into the net. How the Blackhawks didn't box him out is really beyond me. You can't let a guy have a free path to the net to feast on your goalie. Not sure what the hell Keith was doing lunging at Haula, at the blue line either.
2014 Playoff song via HockeeNight: