WCF Game 2
Heading into the third period of last night’s clash between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings in game two of the Western Conference final, the Hawks must have been feeling pretty good about themselves.
Chicago was leading 2-1, a position that they’ve been more than comfortable with in these playoffs. The Hawks had a record of 5-1 so far this post-season when leading after two, while the Kings had not come back in the third period once in six games, so a victory appeared to be in sight for the boys in red. The Hawks were going back to Los Angeles with a healthy 2-0 series lead, and a clear path to yet another Stanley Cup final in front of them.
Not so fast.
Momentum is a funny thing, something that can’t always be quantified with advanced statistics, nor something that can be predicted, but once momentum turns you can feel it, and you can rarely stop it.
For the Kings, momentum came off the glove of goalie Jonathan Quick.
Down 2-0 in the second period, Kris Versteeg and Brent Seabrook broke in on a two-on-one and Quick made a brilliant save diving to his left to stop Seabrook. A goal there could have easily put the Kings in a nearly insurmountable 3-0 hole but instead gave them all the momentum they needed to get back into this one.
Justin Williams cut the lead in half with about two minutes to go in the second period and the Kings were on their way. Jeff Carter and Jake Muzzin scored on consecutive power plays to start the third period, and the Hawks were officially reeling. Tyler Toffoli and then Carter, with his second of the night, scored to make it 5-2 with 5:16 to go and Chicago just couldn’t answer. Carter capped the night with a hat trick into an empty net, and the Kings officially stole home ice advantage from the shocked defending champions with a 6-2 victory.
So what does this Kings win mean for game three in Los Angeles on Saturday? Well, nothing and everything.
On one hand, you could say that this game was an aberration. Few would have suspected, given how well Chicago has closed out games this post-season, that they would falter so badly in the final frame. Fewer still would have expected that the Kings would score five goals in one period of a playoff game for the first time in more than two decades (though it was perhaps fitting with Wayne Gretzky, who potted two goals for them on that night back in 1993, in the audience). Given how brilliant Hawks netminder Corey Crawford has been lately (just four goals against in his last four games), this offensive outburst seems even more unlikely.
Though, in retrospect, it does make a little sense. The Kings are the highest scoring team in these playoffs and also have a brilliant power play, but were stymied by Crawford in game one, so they were perhaps due for an offensive uptick (especially on the road where they now have a phenomenal 35 goals in 10 games away from Staples Center this post season). The same could probably be said of Carter, a noted sniper who had just two goals in his last ten games but broke through with the hatty last night. Similarly, Quick, who struggled in game one, is too good of a goalie to stay down for long and his solid, 23-save effort surprised no one.
Still though, this game was decided by none of those factors. It simply came down to one team stealing momentum and the other struggling in vain to stem the tide that was overwhelming them.
The question now is: can the Hawks turn things back to their favor in game three? They’re a veteran team and there is no doubt they have the ability to do so, especially with the Kings’ middling 3-3 record at home in this post-season. But momentum is a hard thing to fight against and game three, as it so often does, will go a long way to telling us who’s in the diver’s seat in this series for a shot at the Stanley Cup.
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