Goalie's 48 saves lead Blackhawks past Vegas in Game 4

More than just the Blackhawks' season was on the line Sunday night. So was maybe the Blackhawks career of arguably the best goalie in their franchise history.

An unrestricted free agent this NHL offseason, Corey Crawford turns 36 on New Year's Eve, and he didn't play his best hockey in the first two games of the Blackhawks' opening-round playoff series against Vegas in Edmonton.

But how could any Blackhawks fan be surprised by Crawford's Game 4 performance? His 48 saves saved the Blackhawks, who finally played with a lead against a bigger and better Vegas team and held on for a 3-1 win, staving off elimination in the best-of-seven series.

Drake Caggiula, Matthew Highmore and Alex DeBrincat (empty-netter) scored for the Blackhawks, who earned a Game 5 on Tuesday (9:30 p.m.) in the Edmonton bubble, trailing 3 games to 1.

"The first three games, we probably deserved better than to be with zero wins," said coach Jeremy Colliton, whose Blackhawks lost Game 2 (overtime) and Game 3 by 1 goal each. "Tonight, Crow was outstanding."

Crawford improved to 14-5 in playoff-elimination games. His $6 million cap hit comes off the books once the season ends, and Blackhawks management will have to decide whether they want to bring back a goaltender who boasts 260 career regular-season wins, another 52 in the postseason and 2 Stanley Cup rings.

"He stood on his head, made a ton of big saves, gave us a lot of momentum," Caggiula said after the Blackhawks were outshot 47-25, including 20-8 in the opening period, despite leading 2-1. "That's why he's won Cups before."

The Blackhawks killed off all 3 Vegas power plays. Among Crawford's highlight stops was a glove save on Zach Whitecloud from below the right-wing dot midway through the third with the Golden Knights pressuring and Duncan Keith without a stick.

"We did a better job of getting clears when we had the chance, and obviously Corey was our best penalty killer and our best player," Keith said. "When you get those saves that we're getting from him, it gives you confidence, for sure."

Caggiula opened the scoring less than five minutes into the opening period, finishing a pass from behind the net from Olli Maatta. Highmore, who had 2 goals in 36 regular-season games, got his third of the postseason to make it 2-0 with 6:20 left in the first.

Highmore shot from below the goal line, and Vegas goalie Robin Lehner headed the puck into his own net.

"It wasn't exactly intentional," Highmore said. "Trying to get some pucks to the net. You take them any way you can get them."

Same with playoff victories.

"We got a ton of skill and we can score some goals," Crawford said. "We play fast hockey. Now that we got a win, we got to carry that momentum. We have some great young players to go with the guys that have been doing this for a while, so I like our chances."