Photo by: Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images
The Rematch of the Stanley Cup Western Conference Finals took place today at United Center. Game 1 was dominated by the Chicago Blackhawks and the Kings were nowhere in sight in today’s game. The Kings were only to get the puck in the net one time as the Blackhawks netted 3 goals and Quick wasn’t able to do anything about them. Tyler Tiffoli was the only player to score for the Kings but Doughty, Brown, Richards, Gaborik were all denied.
United Center was loud and filled with Blackhawk fans shouting “GO HAWKS GO” over and over again. It seemed to help the Hawks dominate game 1. The King’s defense didn’t look as strong as they have they past two rounds and were just manhandled by both the Hawk’s Offense and Defense. When the Kings were ready to score or go ahead with an amazing play, a defense player from the Hawks were there and ready to stop the play from getting any uglier for them. It seemed like the Kings were playing against 8 Blackhawk players instead of just 5. Anywhere you say, there was Hawk player putting up some great defense. Crawford also looked phenomenal in front of the net. There were so many plays that denied the Kings from tying up the game or taking the lead. Corey Crawford had a phenomenal 25 saves out of the 26 shots that the Kings made. The only shot that he couldn’t block was Tiffoli’s goal.
Brandon Saad opened the scoring for the Blackhawks in the 14th minute of the game. With assists coming from Nick Leddy and Marian Hossa, he was able to tip it in and get in between Quick’s legs and into the net. In the 2nd period, the Hawks took a 2-0 lead at 3:22 from a shot of Toews but after the review of the goal, Toews had his goal disallowed. The original call on the ice was a goal but after reviewing the play and the officials had a discussion, the decision came out to be a incidental contact with Quick before the puck crossed the goal line. The Blackhawks couldn’t get the play to be reviewable again and the decision stood.
A minute after that play, Tiffoli gave the Kings a 1-1 game by tipping in the puck into the net. The tie didn’t last long as Duncan Keith gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead. The Kings had many chances to tie the game and hopefully taking the lead, but Crawford looked just too good in the net and denied the Kings many goals. In the 3rd period Jonathan Toews was able to give the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead when Johnny Oduya and Marian Hossa created a beautiful play and were able to give it to Toews to put it in the net. There was nothing Doughty or Quick could do as Doughty was going against 3 and Toews was too fast for Jonathan Quick.
Teams who score first are 26-1 in the post-season and if the Blackhawks continue to play the way they played today against the Kings, they will for sure take the Wester Conference Title and go on to the Stanley Cup. Game 2 will take place at United Center, where the Hawks will host the LA Kings and hope to take a 2-0 lead in the Conference before heading to Los Angeles for Game 3 &4. The game will be at 7PM ET/4PM PT.
