ANAHEIM — When you can go to an NHL playoff game, and see something that nobody in an Original Six city has ever seen their hockey team do before, that’s pretty cool.
When you see two things you’ve never witnessed in that same game, well, a Tuesday night in Anaheim becomes a game that you’ll never, ever forget.
The Chicago Blackhawks celebrated the longest game in franchise history with a 3-2 triple overtime victory, when Marcus Kruger whacked home the rebound off a typically innocuous long-range wrist shot by Brent Seabrook. It was truly a caricature of the kind of goal that usually wins these marathons, a quarter of a chance that ends a game after 25 better opportunities had somehow failed to do so.
But, before Kruger’s winner, which came after 166 minutes and 12 seconds of action, Andrew Shaw appeared to win the game when he deftly headed home a puck from the top of the crease, soccer style with his head. Deep down Shaw knew the goal wouldn’t count, because, as he described, “Back in the (2011) Memorial Cup (Devante) Smith-Pelly did it against us, and they disallowed the goal. It was just a reaction. You do whatever you can to get that puck across that line.”
I’ve seen pucks deflect off of a player’s face, and I recall Daniel Sedin once heading a high flip shot into the opposition’s zone from the blue line. But never have I witnessed a player deftly nod the puck into the back of the net, as if he were a striker for Arsenal.
“If anyone can pull that off I think they should call it a goal, just how cool it is,” Shaw contested. “You know, everyone is always telling you to use your head when you’re out there. So I guess I just went and did that.”
In the big picture this was also the longest game ever played at the Honda Center, though the Ducks once went into a five-OT marathon at Dallas. Small picture, the Blackhawks accomplished what every road team sets out to do, and that is to wrest away home-ice advantage early in this Western Conference Final.
“That’s going to take the wind out of their sails, definitely,” said bruising winger Bryan Bickell. “Now, we need to back it up in Chicago. We’ve got the momentum, (though) it doesn’t feel like we do, because I’m really tired.”
Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith led all players with 49:51 of ice time on the night. In fact, each of Chicago’s Top 4 defencemen played more than 46 minutes, as head coach Joel Quenneville tried to employ his third pairing of the ageing Kimmo Timonen and fill-in Kyle Cumiskey as little as possible.
Every single Anaheim skater played more than Timonen’s 16:45, a rotational disadvantage that could well cost Chicago if Game 2 is a portent of things to come.
“It was wild, grueling, exhausting,” said Bickell, who wasn’t sure if players were more focused on being the overtime hero, or not being the overtime goat. “It kind of felt like the first couple periods were just back and forth, not taking any chances. Nobody wanted to screw up. Then, an easy shot from the point, we’ve got a couple of guys in front, and we get the rebound.”
The final shots read 62-56 for Anaheim. There were 112 faceoffs in the game, and the stats crew had Anaheim out-hitting Chicago 71-45. Both goalies, Corey Crawford in the ‘Hawks net, and Frederik Andersen for Anaheim, were absolutely marvelous.
“It was one of those games where at some point you didn’t think anybody was going to score,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau. “The way the goalies were playing, the opportunities that were had and being missed.”
Seabrook, who has a knack for being around big playoff goals for Chicago, lofted the puck at the net that would eventually close this one out. The ice was awful by that point, and you knew it would be a workman’s goal that decided this game.
“I mean, I just saw (Chicago’s) D-men going D to D there, lost the puck for a little bit there and happy to find it there and put it in,” said Kruger, who seemed a tad short on the details of the biggest goal in his NHL career. “It hit my glove first and then I tried to get a stick on it. Happy to put it in.”
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And happy to head home at 1-1, with plenty of hockey left to play in this fantastic series. And we mean lots of hockey.
You can book your rooms for Game 6, and more than likely, a Game 7 in this stunning Conference final between two teams of the highest pedigree.
And if they’re all as good as this one? Oh boy, this could be a series we’ll all remember for a long, long time.
