Members of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrate center Jonathan Toews's (19) goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the first period in Game 7 of the Western Conference final of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, May 30, 2015.Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press
It was almost exactly a year ago to the day that the Chicago Blackhawks lost a heart-wrenching seventh-game overtime decision to the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL's 2014 Western Conference final. One year to let the hurt seep in. One year to think about the opportunity that slipped through their grasp under the flukiest of circumstances – a deflected puck going in off the stick of a player (Nick Leddy) no longer in the organization to end their run as Stanley Cup champions.
No, Chicago knows all about the letdown that comes from having your season come to an abrupt and unhappy end just one game short of the final – and they weren't about to let it happen again.
In the seventh game of what had been a close, entertaining series, the Blackhawks took control of the game early on two goals by captain Jonathan Toews (aka Captain Serious) in the first 11:55 of play - and then held on to defeat the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 Saturday night at the Honda Center.
Chicago now advances to its third Stanley Cup final in six years and will play the Lightning in Tampa.
It was another remarkable night for Chicago's dynamic duo of Toews and Patrick Kane, who added three assists. Kane broke his clavicle just before the NHL trading deadline and it was thought he would miss the remainder of the season. Instead, he came back for the start of the playoffs and is getting better and better, as every series progresses.
Even more remarkable: Toews, who is becoming the new Scott Niedermayer, the Hall of Fame and Ducks' assistant coach, a player who won at every level throughout his career. In a 30-team era, governed by a salary cap, what Chicago's done in the past half-dozen years is truly remarkable.
"Yeah, there were no easy games," said Toews, post-game. "There was nothing given to us. There were no moments in this series where there were any lulls. We had to earn everything against that team.
"It was an incredible test for both teams. I think everyone watched some pretty entertaining hockey with the talents, and the offence, going back and forth. It's a great feeling to have found a way to close out a series against a team like that – and on top of it, give ourselves a chance to go back to the Stanley Cup final."
The series against the Lightning, which begins Wednesday night, will be a homecoming of sorts for Chicago centre Richards, who won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP 11 years ago playing for Tampa, the one and-only time they ever won the Stanley Cup.
Richards, who played for the New York Rangers in last year's final, when they lost to the Kings, is now a perfect 8-0 in career seventh games. Moreover, that makes him only the third player in NHL history after Glenn Anderson and Ray Bourque to be part of the winning team eight times in a deciding seventh game.
Richards set up Toews for the second Chicago goal, a deft little feed on a Blackhawks' power play, after Toews had cycled all the way to the top of the face-off circle to blast a long shot behind Ducks' goaltender Frederik Andersen, who looked nervous all night. Chicago scored four goals on 16 shots in the first two periods.
Anaheim broke Corey Crawford's shutout attempt on a four-on-four goal by Ryan Kesler with 1:19 to go in the second period to close to within three after 40 minutes. Corey Perry pulled them closer with a goal at 11:36 of the third, but they couldn't pull off the sort of miracle comeback that was a staple of their performance in the regular season and again in the first-round victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Brent Seabrook extended Chicago's lead back to three goals with a power-play goal 13:23, and that took the life out of the capacity crowd of 17,375 at the Honda Centre, many of them clearly cheering for the Blackhawks.
Chicago previously won the Stanley Cup in 2010 and 2013 and the two biggest parts of those championship teams – Toews and Patrick Kane – were instrumental in getting them back to the final for a third try, an unprecedented run in the NHL's salary cap era.
Kane and Toews normally don't play together except on the power play, but coach Joel Quenneville put them together in the latter stages of Game 5 – and they were dynamite again Saturday night.
Kane made the play on the game's opening goal, carrying the puck into the zone and stopping up short and getting the puck over to defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson. Toews tried to tip in Hjalmarsson's shot as it filtered through legs and missed; but had the presence of mind to poke in the rebound, lying loose in the crease.
Additionally, Kane also set up Brandon Saad's goal 1:18 into the second period, which really put the game on ice for Chicago. Ducks' defenceman Clayton Stoner tried to crunch Saad in the corner to Andersen's left and then lost track of him. Kane took a feed from Johnny Oduya, who won a puck race ahead of Ryan Getzlaf, and settled the bouncing puck down nicely, before chipping it over to Saad for an easy empty netter.
Marian Hossa added the other goal for Chicago, which now has 69 playoff victories since 2009, the most in the NHL in that span.
The theory is that Chicago will need to dump some salary this coming summer, after lucrative new contracts to Toews and Kane kick in, so the urgency to win another championship is high. Though Tampa has the home-ice advantage, Chicago's playoff pedigree will undoubtedly make the Blackhawks the favorites.
Anaheim was playing at home Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 17,375 that included Wayne and Janet Gretzky along with Ducks' legend Teemu Selanne, but inexplicably, coach Bruce Boudreau didn't take advantage of the last line change much.
Instead, his Blackhawks' counterpart Quenneville worked hard to get Toews away from Kesler, preferring to play him head-to-head against Ryan Getzlaf. Toews was teammate of Getzlaf's on the 2014 Canadian men's Olympic championship team, but in the final two games of the series, outplayed him by a wide margin.
When asked what it was about the match-up that didn't work in Getzlaf's favor, Boudreau said: "You know what? It's a hard question to answer. You're looking for me to say one guy is better than another guy. That's not the case.
"All I know is Ryan Getzlaf played for us very hard, and he is a great captain. He's the first one that's going to be wishing that things had turned out a little bit different 'cause he was ready to play, and he played his ass off or his heart out, whatever you want to call it. It didn't work in his favor today."
Anaheim didn't lose in regulation for the first 14 games of the post-season, but then dropped two straight and is now on the sidelines.
"I feel like you pour your heart and soul into this," said Ducks' defenceman Cam Fowler. "We worked all season to have Game 7 in our building, and it's a pretty empty feeling right now. I feel like we let the fans down and let the people around us down. It's not a fun feeling right now."
The Ducks got it to within two, by pressing at the end, but it wasn't enough to pull off another in their series of 11th-hour comebacks. For three years in a row now, Anaheim has been eliminated in the seventh game of a series – first by the Detroit Red Wings, last year by the Los Angeles Kings, this year by the Hawks.
"Last year was tough, but this is even worse," said Ducks' forward Patrick Maroon. "We were one game away. We had them on the ropes and we were going 3-2 into their barn. You saw what happened there (a Ducks' loss). We were looking better because we think we have home-ice advantage in front of our fans. Honestly, I have no words."
For Quenneville, who has the third most coaching wins in NHL history, last year's loss to the Kings was one of the hardest to swallow in his career. He said that provided extra motivation Saturday when the opportunity for redemption presented itself.
"It was a tough thing to visit - a real negative moment," said Quenneville. "Then you have to get ready in training camp and think, Wow, do you know how long it is to get to where we got today? It's an eternity.
"We commend the guys' perseverance, finding different ways, challenges. Making the playoffs in today's game is a great accomplishment, especially when teams are excited about playing you. That's just a testament to the consistency and the way they prepare. I commend the guys that have been through it."