Teuvo Teravainen the difference for Hawks in Game 1 win
With Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal unraveling before the eyes of 21,000-plus at the United Center on Friday night, the Blackhawks and their fans desperately needed a hero.
Who would step up and stop the bleeding after Minnesota managed to erase a 3-0 first-period lead in under 10 minutes?
Patrick Kane? Jonathan Toews? Marian Hossa? Duncan Keith?
No, it was Teuvo Teravainen - a baby-faced, 20-year-old rookie who didn't even play in the last four games of Round 1. Yes, it was Teravainen who threw a puck from the sideboards past Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk for the game-winner in a 4-3 Hawks victory.
He was surprised as anybody that the puck found the back of the net.
"A little bit," Teravainen said. "It wasn't the biggest shot, but sometimes good things happen when I shoot."
Brandon Saad, Patrick Kane and Marcus Kruger spearheaded a first-period blitz that saw the Hawks grab that 3-0 lead.
Minnesota fought back with 3 goals of its own in the first 9:30 of the second period but couldn't get over the top. The Wild remains winless at the United Center in the postseason and is 2-8 all time in Game 1s.
Corey Crawford, starting for the first time since Game 2 vs. Nashville, stopped 30 of 33 shots.
Game 2 is Sunday at the United Center at 7:30 p.m.
Although he won't accept any praise for the decision to insert Teravainen, feel free to heap plenty of it on Joel Quenneville, who continues to make all the right moves in this postseason. The Hawks' veteran coach played goalie roulette in the first round, and it paid off with 4 wins over Nashville. Against Minnesota, Quenneville pulled his chips off Kris Versteeg's 23 jersey number and inserted Teravainen.
Of course, while his game-winner may have had an element of luck to it, the reason Teravainen was in the lineup has everything to do with the skill and puck-handling ability the soft-spoken Fin brings to the table.
"It's great for him to get that," Niklas Hjalmarsson said of the big goal. "He's a great a guy with tons of talent and his hands are (amazing).
"I'm pretty jealous of his hands; he can do stuff with the puck kind of amazes you. I just think the more he plays, the better he's gonna be."
Said Quenneville: "It was obviously very timely and a big goal in a big setting. He's a confident guy with the way he plays the game with or without the puck. … Last minute of the period, he did the right thing. It wasn't a fancy play, he just put it at the net - something we harp on - and we got a break."
The Hawks got off to the fast start they've been dreaming about all postseason as Saad made it 1-0 just 75 seconds into the game. He beat Dubnyk after chipping the puck around Ryan Suter, then bowling past the all-world defenseman to set up a short shot right in front of the net.
About 10 minutes later, Brad Richards - after turning the Wild's Marco Scandella into a pretzel - put the puck right on Patrick Kane's stick and Kane did the rest, ripping it past Dubnyk for a 2-0 lead. Marcus Kruger made it 3-0 just 2:04 later.
Minnesota roared back with goals by Jason Zucker, Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund, giving most fans at the UC quite a scare.
Not that the players were nervous.
"No one was rattled in here; no one was worried," Crawford said. "We just kept playing hard."
And whether it's by switching goalies, getting big overtime goals by veteran defensemen or inserting an unable-to-grow-a-playoff-beard rookie, they keep doing one other thing as well.
They just keep winning.
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