EDMONTON, Alberta – The Chicago Blackhawks were in deep trouble. That’s when Corey Crawford took over.
Crawford made 48 saves in a stellar performance, and the Blackhawks beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 on Sunday night to stay alive in their first-round playoff series.
“It’s probably as good as he’s ever been,” Chicago defender Duncan Keith said. “I do not know what the shots were, but they had a lot of shots, and he made himself great every time. There were also not a lot of rebounds, so that was a big part of that. He was our best player last night. . ”
Drake Caggiula and Matthew Highmore scored goals in the first period for the Blackhawks, and Alex DeBrincat added a low-net with 10 seconds left. Chicago gave Robin Lehner his first loss in a Golden Knights uniform since the goaltender was acquired in a deal with the Blackhawks in February.
Vegas suffered its first loss since arriving in Edmonton for the NHL restart. The Golden Knights, who entered Sunday were the last remaining undefeated team to participate in the through-start, will have another chance on Tuesday to eliminate the Blackhawks in Game 5.
“The mood in the room is that if we keep playing for Game 5, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win the game,” said Vegas defender Nate Schmidt.
Shea Theodore scored his fourth playoff goal for Vegas in the first period when his shot from the spot slipped through the net. But it was the only time the Golden Knights managed to beat Crawford on a night when the playoff-tested veteran was the best player on the ice.
Crawford, who was not in when Chicago won the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015, set a playoff career high for saving in a regular season game.
“I think for the most part we kept them outside when they had that look, where they might have had a second or two to hold it and shoot,” Crawford said. It didn’t really come out of the middle, so that helps me a lot to be on the corner and give up less net. “
Playing less than 24 hours after a 2-1 loss in Game 3, Crawford was attacking from the start, especially after the Blackhawks took a 2-0 lead on Highmore’s unexpected goal. Highmore threw a shot on the net from below the goal line and got a lucky deflection when Lehner tried to lead the puck with his head but sent it into his net instead.
“It went into the net, so I was not very happy with it,” Lehner said. It’s a game of mistakes. I made a mistake. It was also a pretty good shot. But I must have that. ”
Theodore’s shot slipped through, but nothing else did. Crawford was up to every challenge, especially as the Golden Knights continued to test him with high shots to the gloveside. Crawford made a diving save on Max Pacioretty and filled William Karlsson on a break in the second period.
But Crawford’s best sequence came perhaps halfway through the third period when he stopped Karlsson’s attempt with his mask and then glowed Zach Whitecloud’s wrist shot from inside the right circle.
“Our third period was great,” Crawford said. They just put pucks on the net to throw it, and our boys were there to erase it and just get it, get it out of the chaos. We came back great defensively in the third. ‘ ‘
The Chicago Penitentiary also had a solid night. Vegas went 0-for-3 with the man advantage and did not score a power-play goal in the series. The Blackhawks have killed the past 14 power games dating back to the qualifying game against Edmonton.
Lehner had already won seven of his starts since arriving in Vegas – three in the regular season and four in Edmonton. Lehner made 22 saves.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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