Blackhawks just one win away from winning Stanley Cup after defeating Tampa Bay in Game Five

TAMPA, Florida – Entering Game Five of the Stanley Cup Final, the series was even at two games each. The battle would now be a best-of-three remaining games to determine the victor. With history on the side of the Game Five winner, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning to take a 3-2 series lead and now head home to the United Center for a possible Game Six clincher Monday night.

Antoine Vermette broke a 1-1 deadlock two minutes into the final frame to give the Chicago Blackhawks the lead. On the winning Chicago goal, Blackhawks winger Kris Versteeg broke in behind the Lightning defense where Jason Garrison lifted his stick on the first effort. A second effort was not as successful and Vermette scored on the rebound.

Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford stopped 31 of 32 shots, continuing his solid play and keeping Chicago in the game when the flurry of shots and chances threatened to penetrate the net.

The game featured a series of odd and peculiar events which helped determine the winner. A victory in the next game will give the Chicago Blackhawks their third Stanley Cup Championship in the last six years.

Chicago last won the Stanley Cup at home in 1938 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. “I’m sure it will be crazy over the next two days in town,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “The buzz will be off the charts. [Looking] forward to it.” If Chicago is unable to clinch Monday night, the series would return to Tampa for a decisive game seven.

In having his second game-winning goal of the Final, Vermette wasn’t viewed as one of the most attractive additions at the trade deadline. He has proven his worth to the Blackhawks since his arrival, particularly in the Final. A pending unrestricted free agent, Vermette came to Chicago in exchange for Chicago’s first-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft along with defense prospect Klas Dahlbeck.

After not scoring in 19 regular season game with the Blackhawks, Vermette now has four goals in the playoffs, including the game-winner in Game One of the Final and Game Four of the Western Conference Final against Anaheim. That goal came in the second overtime.

“Right off the get-go, [this] was a great opportunity for me. I want to make the best out of it,” Vermette said. “This is a good group, obviously a special team. I’m glad I’m here to try to help the team. This is all fun right now, but there’s a lot of work still ahead.”

With speculation swirling all day if Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop would play after missing Game Four with a undisclosed injury, he turned in a solid game, stopping 27 of 29 shots. But his decision to come out to make a play with his stick a little more than six minutes into the game set the tone for Tampa Bay having to play from behind most of the game.

With the puck sliding into the zone and to his right, Bishop came out to play it, deep into the face-off circle near the blue line. As Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman skated closer to the puck, he reached it at the same time as Bishop. The two collided sending both players sprawled on the ice. Chicago forward Patrick Sharp took control of the puck and slid it into the open net.

Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos, the nearest Lightning player to the play, was not close enough to intervene. Chicago had a 1-0 lead on Sharp’s first of the Final and fifth of the playoffs. Bishop was on the ice for a period of time requiring extra time for the trainer to evaluate his health after the damaging play.

A minute before the Chicago goal, a peculiar play which could have given Tampa Bay the upper hand ended up puting the Lightning in a very tough spot. While playing the puck behind his goal, Crawford turned the puck over on a clearing attempt to Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. Instead of puting the puck into the Chicago net, Kucherov fell over Crawford while shooting in a play which saw Crawford scramble back to the crease to get a skate on it. Kucherov crashing into the left post, striking his right shoulder. He left the game and did not return. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper did not have an update on Kucherov’s status after the game.

Unlike previous games when Tampa Bay came out strong to start the game, Chicago turned the tables on the Lightning, controlling play right from the start. Chicago outshot Tampa Bay 14-5 in the first period and won 13 of 23 face-offs, this without having the last change.

But the trend did not carry over into the second period when the Lightning came out strong, really taking it to Chicago. Tampa Bay was swarming Crawford and just after the midway point of the period, their hard work paid off.

In applying pressure inside the Chicago zone, Anton Stralman held the puck in at the right point and slid it over to Jason Garrison who was waiting at the left point. Garrison spotted Valtteri Filppula at the opposite side of the ice near the edge of the face-off circle and close to Crawford. Filppula accepted the cross-ice pass and wristed a shot into the open side. Crawford could not react quickly enough and the Lightning knotted the game up 1-1. The home crowd, with plenty of Chicago red sprinkled among it, finally had reason to cheer and the Amalie arena exploded in jubilance.

The teams have played 15 periods in the series and neither has held a two-goal lead. Each game has been tied in the third period.

The Lightning have been defeated by a 2-1 score three times and now face losing a series in Game 6 for the second time this postseason. Monday night marks their 26th playoff game, which will tie the NHL record set by the Los Angeles Kings last season, a campaign in which they won the Stanley Cup in five games against the New York Rangers.

The Blackhawks are 17-1 in games played in a series after it is tied 2-2 since Quenneville arrived during the 2008-09 season. They are 42-14 in any series after Game 3.

“The bigger the game, the bigger the setting, they’re excited about the challenge,” Quenneville said.

Tampa Bay’s effort never seemed to threaten Chicago despite outshooting Chicago 27-15 in the final two periods.

“You make your own breaks,” Cooper said. “I feel bad for [us] in a sense that I think they’ve deserved a little bit better than what we’re sitting now. The one thing, we’re still alive. We’re not out. This is not the press conference that says we’re done. I don’t know.”

“I think there’s happy days ahead for us. We’ve got to push through this.”

Game 6 is set for Monday night at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Face-off is set for 8:00 PM ET and is being televised on NBC, CBC, TVA Sports. The schedule for the remaining games in the Stanley Cup Final are listed below.