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Rozner: Bickell's failed simple play dooms Blackhawks in OT

This time of year, it's all about the details.

Coaches talk about it, they stress it, and they demand it.

And the lack of attention to a single one is precisely why the Blackhawks lost a heartbreaker Monday night.

Bryan Bickell's failed dump-in while the Hawks were changing led to a quick up by Jakob Silfverberg to Ryan Kesler, who passed it off the pads of Corey Crawford to Matt Beleskey, and he buried the rebound 45 seconds into overtime.

Details.

It's about the details when you get this deep into the postseason and a tiny one cost the Hawks a crucial game because Bickell couldn't get a puck deep.

The 5-4 victory at the Honda Center gave Anaheim a 3-2 series lead in the Western Conference finals that head back to Chicago for Game 6 on Wednesday night, and seems destined to return to Orange County for one final game.

“It's disappointing,” Crawford said. “We battled so hard to come back.”

It was indeed a comeback for the ages.

Patrick Maroon put the Ducks up 4-2 with 5:15 remaining in regulation, but the Hawks pulled Crawford and with six skaters on the ice Jonathan Toews buried a one-timer with 1:50 left to pull the Hawks within a score.

And then with only 38 seconds remaining, and an empty net again, Brent Seabrook dumped it in and Andrew Shaw kept the puck alive for Toews, who shot from an impossible angle along the goal line, but it squirted through Frederik Andersen and the Hawks were back in business, headed to overtime for the third time in the series.

But the game should have never been that tough.

The Hawks weren't ready to start the game and Anaheim jumped all over them, and on Kimmo Timonen's first shift of the game, Patrick Kane strayed too far from the left point.

Timonen, a minus-2 in only 8:06 of ice time, set a perfect rolling screen on Crawford and Cam Fowler blasted one in from the point at 5:10 for a 1-0 lead.

Only 32 seconds later, Kesler's brilliant tip-in made it 2-0 and the Hawks were forced to call their timeout.

The Ducks made it 3-0 at 14:37 when Ryan Getzlaf won a faceoff to Sami Vatanen and the point shot off Andrew Desjardins pads beat Crawford, while the Hawks still didn't have a shot on goal.

“We never give up,” Crawford said. “Our second period showed that.”

The Hawks got on the board only 71 seconds into the second when Patrick Sharp's backcheck turned the puck over to Antoine Vermette, who fed Teuvo Teravainen. He skated into the Anaheim zone and fired a harmless shot from the top of the circle that went through Andersen to cut the lead to 3-1.

With only 25 seconds left in the second period, it was Sharp and Teravainen setting up Seabrook from a bad angle and the Hawks were within a goal.

The Hawks were the better team the final 40 minutes and they deserved to force overtime, but they never got the opportunity to win the game because of one simple play.

“They came out really hard and it seemed like their shots were all in the right spot,” Crawford said. “They got the start they wanted and we didn't get the start we wanted.”

The Hawks are now 0-4 in the postseason after overtime victories.

“We fought and clawed to get ourselves back in the game,” Crawford said. “It's a tough loss, but we're not done here. We'll keep battling.”

There's little doubt the Hawks will be ready to play Wednesday in front of the faithful.

“We'll think about this one for a little bit, but we'll be excited to play in our building,” Crawford said. “We're fine in this room. We want to keep playing hockey.”

In order to do that, the Hawks will have to win the next two games. With series tied at 2-2, however, the team winning Game 5 wins the NHL playoff series 78 percent of the time.

Of course, when it comes to the Hawks, percentages mean nothing.

“That's a good team,” Beleskey said. “You know they're gonna come back. They always do.”

This time the Hawks are playing a team more complete than those they've come back against in the past, but if there's a bright side, Andersen is no longer the immovable object after a couple of bad goals Monday night.

“It's unfortunate we gave up an odd-man break in overtime, because we thought the next bounce would go our way,” Toews said. “But we're a tough team to get rid of and obviously next game is a must win for us.

“Everybody in this room definitely believes that's when we play our best hockey, when our backs are against the wall and it's do-or-die.

“We'll throw everything we got at them next game and try to keep this series alive.”

In a series this good, could it happen any other way?

brozner@dailyherald.com

Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM.

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