Imrem: Soft goal raises more questions about Blackhawks' Crawford

Corey Crawford didn't single-handedly cost the Blackhawks Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Actually, a case could be made that Patrick Sharp did.

Sharp took consecutive penalties in the third period and the Lightning scored the winning goal on the second power play.

But Sharp doesn't play goalie, the most visible and scrutinized position in hockey and maybe in all of sports.

So the Crawford debate began again Saturday night after the Lightning's 4-3 victory that evened the series 1-1.

Crawford fueled some of it himself by saying, "You give up goals that shouldn't go in at this time of the season … it's pretty frustrating."

Tampa Bay, the NHL's highest-scoring team, did to Crawford what it has done to other goalies all postseason.

The Lightning have had trouble scoring in every Game 1 but exploded for a combined 21 goals in four Game 2s.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said his players had to make a turnaround in 72 hours "and they did."

Meanwhile, in Crawford's defense it could half-jokingly be said that it took two Lightning goalies to beat him.

Andrei Vasillevskiy replaced the hobbling Ben Bishop in the third period, was on the ice during the decisive goal and consequently was designated as the winning goalie.

"We have confidence in (Vasilevskiy)," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said.

This was a game where it looked like a team needed two goalies, perhaps in net at the same time because of the end-to-end action.

"That was a pretty good pace out there," Stamkos said with a smile. "That's what people are expecting and didn't see that much of in Game 1."

The two games against the Hawks and Crawford continued the Lightning's pattern of feeling out the opponent for a night before picking up speed.

They also raised the same old questions about him.

Is Crawford a special goaltender or just good? Is he a goalie you can win because of or merely one you can win with? Seriously, who and what is this guy anyway?

Crawford often is compared to Chris Osgood, who won two Stanley Cups as a starter and another as a backup with the Red Wings.

Osgood won those championships and more than 400 games, yet is considered by many to be a function of Detroit's system rather than a Hall of Fame goalie.

The questions about Crawford are similar to the ones asked about Osgood and about many NFL quarterbacks: Do they make the team or does the team make them?

So it has gone for Corey Crawford during most of his career, 2013 championship notwithstanding.

The critical Lightning goal that "shouldn't go in" came when Tyler Johnson somehow squirted the puck between Crawford and the goal post.

In what figures to be a long series filled with close games, yielding goals like that can prove fatal.

Crawford has a habit of shaking off a soft one and a bad game and coming back strong.

Because of that resilience that fits nicely on a resilient team, Hawks players and coaches swear by the goalie that helped them win a Stanley Cup just two years ago.

Still, critics are out there, partly because Crawford has a substantial contract and partly because of goals like Johnson's that put the Lightning ahead 3-2.

"We're in good position," Crawford said of the Hawks now coming back to Chicago with home-ice advantage. "We have a lot of confidence."

His critics would like to have more of it in him if that one goal wasn't allowed Saturday night at Tampa.

mimrem@dailyherald.com