Q's quick thinking quickly turned the tide

Troy Murray answers questions from John Dietz about what fans can expect as the Chicago Blackhawks get set to take on the St. Louis Blues in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

Q: Considering the Blackhawks got a Duncan Keith goal with five seconds remaining in the second period and they erased Vladimir Tarsenko's third-period goal via the coach's challenge, do you feel like the Hawks kind of stole Game 2 a little bit?

A: It's funny how things work out. St. Louis probably looked at Game 1 as they should have lost that game. Brian Elliott was spectacular and made the big saves. They got a goal that wasn't a pretty goal. They'd say, 'Well, maybe we didn't deserve that.'

You win games sometimes where you don't deserve to win. Sometimes you lose games that you should win. Give full marks for the Blackhawks to be able to take advantage of the situation (late in the second period) of why the icing rule was put into place. You could almost argue, should it have been an icing call? But once the call is made, you take advantage of it.

You hadn't seen Andrew Shaw, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane out on the ice as a line in this series. Very seldom do you see it. But there was a purpose for that specific matchup. …

You take advantage of situations, and do you get a little bit lucky? Yeah.

But the margin between winning and losing in the playoffs is millimeters with the offsides call (on Jori Lehtera that overturned the Tarasenko goal). You just have to find ways in the playoffs to win hockey games.

Q: What does that say about Joel Quenneville to send Shaw, Toews and Kane out there for an offensive zone draw with 7.2 seconds remaining in the second period of Game 2?

A: Well, that's a great coaching decision by Joel. And something that maybe a lot of people didn't realize.

But why was Andrew Shaw out there with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane with seven seconds to go? His sole purpose was to be that guy who could disrupt the front of the net. That's exactly what he did.

He didn't factor into the goal (on the scoresheet). Doesn't get any credit for it, other than what people who know the game of hockey see that if that shot goes through and Brian Elliott is able to see the shot, he makes the save (on Duncan Keith's goal with 4.4 seconds left).

Is it something that a lot of people picked up? Probably not. … But that line was sent out for a specific reason. It's not something that they work on in practice.

That's just Joel saying, 'Shawzie, you're out there - you know what you need to do. Get to the front of the net. Toews, you want to win the draw. Kane, if you have an opportunity to get a hold of the puck, make a play.'

Bang, bang, bang - it's in the net. That is a quick, spur-of-the-moment coaching decision by Joel Quenneville to throw out that combination and it worked in their favor.

• Troy Murray is in his 16th year as a member of the Blackhawks broadcast team and his ninth as the color analyst for the team's radio broadcasts. The Selke Award winner was a five-time 20-goal scorer who played 15 years in the NHL. Follow him on Twitter@muzz19.