In Edmonton, the Chicago Blackhawks were looking for a series/season saving effort from someone and got it from Corey Crawford who made 48 saves to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-1, on Sunday evening.
The win staved off elimination, but the Hawks still trail in the series, 1-3.
“For the most part, I saw most of the shots,” Crawford said. “There were a couple that I caught late, but we had some big blocks on our penalty kill. If we’re going to get back in this series, we’re going to need a lot more of those. It’s just nice to get the first one, get a little momentum and belief.”
Drake Caggiula and Matthew Highmore scored for the Blackhawks in the fist period to give them the first lead of the series.
“It was the first night we were playing with a lead in this series and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t give them the high-quality chances that we were giving up in the first and second period,” Caggiula said. “The defense stepped up and made a lot of blocks and clears in front of the net, tied up sticks. [Crawford] made the first save and we cleared and, if not, [Crawford] was there too.”
Shea Theodore scored 18 seconds after Chicago took the 2-0 lead.
“That was probably one of our best offensive games with regard to getting pucks through, getting our chances, getting on the forecheck, keeping the puck away from them,” Vegas’ Nate Schmidt said. “They’re not a team that’s going to go away, given their history of guys who have been here. You always want to win a game like that, but the mood in the room right now is, if we continue to play like that in Game 5, we’ll give ourselves a heck of a chance to win a game.”
Alex DeBrincat scored
“We’ve shown we can play with them,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “It’s a big challenge. They’re an excellent team and can beat you in different ways. They have some speed and size and can work you down low. But we’ve had our moments and we’ve generated for our team and shown we can score on our chances, so we’re right there.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Robin Lehner made 22 saves in the loss.
“They’re opportunistic, wait for rush chances, wait for a small mistake and attack,” Lehner said. “They have good players doing it. I think it was our best game of the series. We just weren’t rewarded.”
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