Duncan Keith turned out to be the Blackhawks’ unlikely hero Sunday in extra time.
Keith carried the puck from his personal finish, beating Avalanche ahead Nathan MacKinnon within the course of, and lifted the Hawks to a 2-1 victory in opposition to Colorado on the United Center to maintain their playoff hopes alive.
After falling onto his facet, the 35-year-old defenseman jumped again onto his skates and celebrated by elevating his arms above his head and screaming together with his eyes broad open.
“I don’t score too many overtime goals, but MacKinnon was coming down, and I’m just trying to not get embarrassed there,” mentioned Keith, who has scored solely 17 game-winning targets in 14 seasons. “I just tried to slam it at the net as hard as I could. It hit the net, and luckily it went in.”
The Hawks knew how very important this weekend was for his or her playoff aspirations. So with the rating tied within the third interval, they have been firing on all cylinders and outshot the Avalanche 15-3.
“I’m sure everyone knows that we would like them to not get any more points, but overall we just wanted to win the game,” coach Jeremy Colliton mentioned. “I actually favored how we responded.
‘‘We discovered a special degree, quite a lot of strain on the puck, held the puck, pressured them to play D-zone, defended very well, so a great efficiency.”
Goalie Corey Crawford, who was in internet Saturday in Denver, had one other excellent recreation, stopping 19 of 20 pictures.
“[Crawford has] always been one of our best players, if not our best player,” Keith mentioned. “When Corey’s in internet, we all know there’s an opportunity we’re going to win. We know he’s going to make these large saves. He made them final evening, and he made them once more tonight.
‘‘There’s not too many simple ones that ever go in all through the course of the season on him, so he was large for us tonight.”
The Avs’ lone purpose by Alexander Kerfoot got here after they had a two-man benefit within the second interval. But ahead Artem Anisimov made up for that purpose with a power-play purpose of his personal.
Anisimov’s purpose was a sigh of reduction for the Hawks’ sputtering energy play. After producing at a 40 % clip for a number of weeks in December and January, the Hawks have been 1-for-25 within the earlier 11 video games earlier than his purpose within the third interval.
With the victory, the Hawks path the Avalanche by 5 factors for the second Western Conference wild-card spot. The Hawks are additionally three factors behind the Coyotes and Wild with a recreation in hand.
Colliton admitted that it’s laborious to not observe the standings when the race is that this shut.
“We’re aware, obviously,” Colliton mentioned of the standings. “Everyone looks at the scores. But we’re in the position where we just have to focus on right here, right now. Focus on [the next] game, win one game, and the other stuff will take care of itself. We’ll at least give ourselves a chance.”
The Hawks have solely seven video games left over the subsequent week and a half. They’re embarking on one other journey out west and play the Coyotes on Tuesday in Arizona. Once they return, they’ve a brutal remaining leg to shut out the season in opposition to the Jets, Blues, Stars and Predators.
“We’ve done a good job of winning some hockey games to have the privilege of playing in big games as we are now,” Colliton mentioned. “We have to win a few more to stay in it.”