Blackhawks control Game 1, win 4-1 to take early series lead over Red Wings

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By Nick Barnowski –

The Chicago Blackhawks won’t have much to complain about from Game 1. The Red Wings, well, that’s a different story.

It was a near-textbook Game 1 performance for the Chicago Blackhawks in their Western Conference Semifinal series with the Detroit Red Wings, as Chicago cruised to a 4-1 victory Wednesday night at the United Center.

The Blackhawks out-shot the Wings 42-21, while also forcing Detroit to turn the puck over numerous times en route to their 1-0 series lead.

Johnny Oduya scored the game winning goal for Chicago, firing the puck past Jimmy Howard midway through the third period after being left wide-open in the slot, and the Hawks never looked back.

Howard made 38 saves in the loss, while Crawford stopped 20 for his tenth career postseason win.

Marian Hossa, Marcus Kruger and Patrick Sharp also scored for the Blackhawks, who had almost a week off after beating the Minnesota Wild in five games during the first round.

It didn’t take long for the rested Blackhawks to find their scoring touch, either.

After a Gustav Nyquist penalty eight minutes into Game 1, the Blackhawks capitalized on the game’s first power play. A turnover by Brendan Smith led to a Marian Hossa goal – the former Red Wing rocketed a slapshot past Howard to help set the tone early.

Shortly after, the tandem of Nyquist and Damien Brunner tied the game at one for the Red Wings. Breaking in on the right side, Brunner ripped a shot on goal that was saved by Corey Crawford, but Nyquist put a shot on net after and then Brunner followed up on the rebound for his third goal of the postseason.

The score remained deadlocked at one through the second period, where Chicago controlled most of the possession. The Blackhawks fired 17 shots towards Jimmy Howard’s goal, but the Detroit netminder was there to turn away them all.

The Wings were only able to muster five shots on goal in the second, and failed to convert on a power-play chance.

Oduya’s strike came at the 8:02 mark of the third, and was one of three third-period goals for the Blackhawks.

Chicago tallied another goal at the 11:23 mark of the final frame. After the puck rested on the back of the Detroit net, it was eventually poked free. Marcus Kruger put the loose puck past Howard, giving the Blackhawks a two goal advantage.

With 48.8 seconds left, Sharp scored an empty-net goal to seal the victory.

The Red Wings will return home before Saturday’s Game 2 rematch. Opening face-off for that game is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET, and will be on NBC and CBC.