The Blackhawks seemed to be checking items off a recently ignored to-do list as they regained control of the Stanley Cup finals Sunday night.
Their 7-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers not only lifted the jam-packed United Center off its moorings, it gave them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, leaving them just one win short of a hoist-the-Cup celebration and a downtown victory parade. But, given the way both teams’ play has fluctuated through the first five games, not even Nostradamus would venture an educated guess as to how Game 6 will go at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center on Wednesday.
And never mind a potential Game 7, which will be on Friday at the United Center if it’s needed.
Nostradamus, by the way, was a bearded forward known for his uncanny sense of anticipation who sipped from the Cup as a member of the Paris Left Bankers in 1530. That’s 480 years ago. The Hawks’ 49-year Cup drought only seems that long.
“It was a lot of fun out there tonight,” Hawks forward Kris Versteeg said after scoring one goal and setting up another. “It was our best 60-minute game. When we’re skating and driving the puck hard, we can be a dangerous team.”
The Hawks had scored first only once in the series’ first four games, and to a man they agreed it would be advisable to do so in Game 5 lest the Flyers build on the momentum they had gained by squaring the series at 2-2 in Philly after spotting the Hawks a 2-0 lead in Chicago. “It would be nice to take advantage of the energy in our building,” Patrick Sharp said.
Check. At 12:17 of the first period, Brent Seabrook took Versteeg’s nifty pass from behind the net and flicked a wrist shot past Flyers goalie Michael Leighton for a 1-0 lead.
The Hawks also spoke of the need to fire more shots at Leighton, because anything can happen when the puck is in front of the net. Check again. Roughly three minutes after Seabrook’s goal, Dave Bolland chipped an odd-angle shot at Leighton from the goaltender’s immediate right, and it trickled in off his skate for a 2-0 Hawks lead.
Leighton seemed dispirited by the cheap one. He was slow to react on Versteeg’s blast from the right wing at 18:15, as was the Flyers’ defense as Versteeg cruised into the Philadelphia zone. His shot found the net, gave the Hawks their first three-goal lead of the series and ended Leighton’s evening.
Brian Boucher took over and was touched up for three goals himself.
“We weren’t very good tonight,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said.
The Hawks’ best period of the series?
“For sure,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “That was the pace we’ve been looking for the whole series.”
Quenneville helped establish that pace with some juggling that separated Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien. The Hawks’ big line had had trouble scoring as a group—one goal and four total points through the first four games. But as separate entities they had a huge night, attacking nemesis Chris Pronger in waves.
Byfuglien, skating with Versteeg and Bolland, had two goals and two assists, restoring the Hawks’ three-goal lead off a nice feed from Toews at 15:45 of the second period and adding an empty-netter for the 7-4 final at 17:55 of the third. He also leveled Pronger with a check that seemed to put at least a temporary end to the angst the hulking Flyers defenseman had caused with his malevolent presence in front of the net and his nasty stick work.
Pronger was on the ice for six of the Hawks’ goals and in the penalty box for the seventh. He was a minus-5 for the evening after being plus-7 through the first four games.
“I was focused, ready. I knew what I had to do,” Byfuglien said. “Getting down two games in their building, we had to come back with some fire and get on them and show them we weren’t going to quit.”
Kane had a goal and an assist skating with Sharp and Andrew Ladd and and Toews an assist centering for Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky. The balanced Hawks put 11 players on the score sheet and got their seven goals from six different players, two of them power-play goals. “I thought we had energy and speed from all our lines tonight,” Quenneville said.
The ever-resilient Flyers declared that they weren’t going away just 32 seconds into the second period when Scott Hartnell converted a gimme after Hawks goaltender Antti Niemi lost track of a rebound. But the Hawks answered when Ladd set up Kane less than three minutes later. They managed to respond each time the Flyers drew close.
“It didn’t matter who we played with tonight—everybody had energy and we were flying from the get-go,” Kane said. “If we play like that, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
Now the Flyers have to do so twice, and with all due respect, the Hawks don’t like Philadelphia’s chances.
“We’ve been working hard,” defenseman Brian Campbell said, “but there’s always another level, and we found it tonight. Now we have to stay with it.”