Crawford keeps Hawks alive against Vegas
Corey Crawford wouldn’t let the Blackhawks go quietly into the Good Knight on Sunday, refusing to let Vegas say goodbye to Chicago as part of the Western hub.
Crawford was sensational, making 46 stops — 35 in the first 40 minutes — and the Hawks got two past Crawford’s former goalie partner Robin Lehner and another by Alex Debrincat while Lehner was on the bench for an extra skater in the final minute for a 3-1 win. The result prevented the Golden Knights from completing a series sweep.
Lehner stoned Debrincat twice before the winger got his first of the playoffs, but he wasn’t anywhere near as busy, facing 27 shots, and he gave up a softy to Matthew Highmore for the game-winner in the game’s 13th minute. Drake Caggiula had the other Chicago goal, also his first of the playoffs, while Shea Theodore was the only Vegas shooter to beat Crawford, getting one past the goalie in a mosh-pit on the shift after Highmore’s goal.
The Hawks were sturdier in the third, but for two periods it was all Crawford.
“That’s hockey and you’ve seen it a bunch of times in different series (Darcy Kuemper for Arizona against Colorado, Joonas Korpisalo for Columbus against Tampa),” said Caggiula.
“Looking at Crow, he stood on his head and he’s the biggest reason why we won this game ... he made a ton of big saves and gave us momentum and that’s why he’s won Cups before.
“He’s been there and done that. He put the team on his back, made the saves we needed and allowed us to fight another day.”
The Golden Knights were the only team in the Edmonton and Toronto hubs that hadn’t lost, winning their first seven games, three in the round-robin seeding portion. They hadn’t dropped a game since March 6 — actually, 4-0 to Winnipeg just before the NHL pause, but they were probably due.
“You’ve got tip your hat to their goalie ... he was their best player tonight and we’ve got to find a way to put a few past him on Tuesday (Game 5),” said
Vegas coach Pete Deboer, who’s seen enough playoff games to know that guys like Crawford can steal games.
Crawford, who has played every single minute of the eight Hawks games here and was starting his fourth game in six days as a 35-year-old, had no chance on Theodore’s goal. And he made saves with every bit of his anatomy, except his noggin. He wasn’t going the Lehner route. Crawford actually didn’t feel that overworked and refused to give Vegas another goal after Theodore’s shot through heavy traffic.
“You don’t want to be giving up high-end chances every game ... that won’t work out, but I think for the most part we kept to them to the outside when they had good looks,” said Crawford. “It wasn’t really coming from the middle, that helps me when they’re coming from an angle.
“I mean, if you look at the shots it looks lopsided but we had a lot of great looks, too (on Lehner). We don’t need a ton of chances to score goals. We’ve got guys who can make plays and score and you don’t necessarily need 50 shots.”