Chicago Wins 2015 Western Conference Championship
The Chicago Blackhawks are your 2015 Western Conference Champions after beating the Anaheim Ducks 5-3.
Jonathan Toews opened the scoring with two first period goals. The Blackhawks would add another two goals in the second period, including a controversial Marian Hossa goal off the skate blade. Video evidence could have gone either way, but the goal was allowed and the Blackhawks went up 4-0.
Anaheim pushed aggressively and closed the gap to 4-2 in the third period. With less than 5 minutes remaining, Bruce Boudreau pulled his goalie. The Blackhawks picked up another power play goal before Anaheim answered late.
Two observations from CBS Sports:
1. Once again, Chicago’s Stanley Cup core – the seven players that have been around for each of the last two Cup victories — came through. Four of the five goals were scored by members of the Cup core, with a pair from the team’s leader Jonathan Toews. Marian Hossa and Brent Seabrook were the other core players to score, while Patrick Kane had two assists. Duncan Keith led all Blackhawks in ice time again. This group, which also includes Niklas Hjalmarsson and Patrick Sharp, has been through these situations before. They’ve won two of four Game 7s and now will play for the Stanley Cup for the third time since 2010. They were successful in each of the last two trips, and were a goal away from making it last year. To keep this group together and for them to be as effective as they have been over seven years, is a modern-NHL marvel.
2. The biggest change the Blackhawks made in Game 7 compared to their other games in Anaheim was that they matched lines far more aggressively. If Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were out, Jonathan Toews was out. More importantly, if Ryan Kesler was out, Toews wasn’t out. That was the case for almost all of the first period. Joel Quenneville let Toews go head-to-head for much of the series against Kesler. He changed it up in Game 6 at home, and despite not having the last change, he did it again in Game 7. Sure enough, Toews scored twice early away from his shadow. The Blackhawks didn’t let it become a distraction, they turned it into a strength. That’s not always easy to do when you have to pay such close attention to who is on the ice. The Ducks took a while to adjust to it, perhaps expecting a similar game as to the others played at the Honda Center in this series. Also, the Blackhawks were regularly winning faceoffs that made this strategy especially advantageous, particularly earlier in the game.
Image courtesy of Anna Enriquez.
