Hawks-Ducks marathon an instant classic
LONG HAUL: Triple-overtime thriller won by Chicago the longest game in winning team’s storied history
CHICAGO — In case you missed it ...
Yes, if you didn’t stick it out through three periods of regulation time Tuesday night between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Anaheim Ducks and then nearly three more of overtime, you missed an instant classic.
It wasn’t the longest playoff game in NHL history, but at times it felt like it.
And when Marcus Kruger finally settled things on a goalmouth scramble 116 minutes and 12 seconds after it started, the best-of-seven Western Conference final was all square at a game apiece.
There were many memorable moments, several bound for playoff highlight reels of the future.
So punch rewind and look at our top five ICYMI moments from a night not to be missed in Southern California.
1 Net Gains
In the Chicago net, all oftmaligned goaltender Corey Crawford did was make 60 saves robbing, among others, Corey Perry, on multiple opportunities. In periods three through six, Crawford stopped all 36 shots he faced.
“He stood on his head and won us the game,” Hawks forward Andrew Shaw said, and he wasn’t kidding.
At the other end, the Dane was great again as Freddie Andersen stopped 53 of the 56 shots he faced, including a shutout stretch that extended almost 110 minutes. The two regulation-time goals he allowed were on the power play and all three Chicago scores came with heavy traffic either in front of or in his crease.
A final note about Crawford: He has now won five of the past six overtime games he’s played and is 4-1 in multiple OT contests.
The Hawks netminder has certainly distanced himself from the memories of the first round when he allowed nine goals on the first 47 shots he faced vs. Nashville.
“Quick, alert ... I thought he battled,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Crawford. “He made a couple of gigantic saves.”
2 Post Patterns
Crawford also has some gigantic assists from the goaltender’s best friend — four, in fact.
Yes, there will be a ringing in the ears of Ducks shooters for days to come, especially in Sami Vatanen, who twice in overtime pinged shots off the crossbar. All told, the Ducks hit iron four times, three in the OT periods, and this would be a dramatically different series heading into Game 3 here at the United Center on Thursday if one of them would have found net.
If the Ducks are unable to rally and advance to the Stanley Cup final, each of those near misses will be scrutinized through a long offseason.
“That’s hockey,” Vatanen said with a shrug. “Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn’t.”
3 Head Games
The goal that wasn’t earlier in overtime will for years be one of the talking points and introduced an obscure NHL rule to many who didn’t know it existed.
We take you to the scrambling, frantic play when pesky Andrew Shaw parked himself in front of the Ducks net and saw a loose puck fluttering in the air above him.
With his stick tied up — and the possibility of a high stick anyway — Shaw finished off a perfect header that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the English Premiership.
The rules are clear that a puck can’t be headed in, however, even though many NHL-ers don’t even know the rule. It made for a short and not so sweet video review for the Hawks.
“I understand (the rule), but I think if anyone can pull that off, it should still be a goal,” Shaw said. “It was pretty cool.”
4 Marathon Men
Other than the occasional bad bounce because of the beat up Honda Center ice and some fatigue that settled in for parts of the third overtime, the game was played at an incredibly high pace, sublime skill level with a physically punishing overtone.
The Ducks were credited with 71 hits as they stick with what got them here — big boy hockey designed to have their opponent pay a physical price on every shift. The more elusive Hawks had 45 official hits, but didn’t back down, especially when gaining ground in front of Andersen.
At times, the movement up the ice was dizzying, both for the speed and the opportunities that resulted from it.
The teams combined for 118 shots on goal — 62-56 in favour of the Hawks — and a total of 112 faceoffs.
“You look at a game like that and it’s hard to kind of remember whether some of those goals or scoring chances were early in the game or if they were even in Game 1,” Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said on Wednesday.
“Some of the things that happened felt like such a long time ago.”
The teams weren’t shy about blocking shots, either, with Ducks players getting in front of 35 and the Hawks blocking 29.
5 Working Overtime
The deeper the game went, the more you wondered whether the Hawks defenders would be able to withstand the Ducks’ punishing physical play. Anaheim players had their own challenges, dealing with the speed of Chicago players and despite how long it went, both teams maintained a remarkably high energy level.
“We had snacks going around the room, made sure we were well fed, well hydrated,” Shaw said.
Then there was the Honda Center ice. For all the sharp play on both sides, the playing surface was getting ragged, especially toward the end of periods.
“The ice was getting bad,” said Crawford, who was part of the longest game in the long history of the Original Six franchise.
“It was getting chippy and pucks were bouncing over sticks.”