Winnipeg Free Press Newspaper Archives Jun 1 2015, Page 21

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 1, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE C3 C3 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2015 winnipegfreepress. com NHL PLAYOFF REPORT FINAL Tampa Bay ( 2) vs. Chicago ( 3) Wednesday, June 3 Chicago at Tampa Bay, 7 p. m. Saturday, June 6 Chicago at Tampa Bay, 6: 15 p. m. Monday, June 8 Tampa Bay at Chicago, 7 p. m. Wednesday, June 10 Tampa Bay at Chicago, 7 p. m. Saturday, June 13 x- Chicago at Tampa Bay, 7 p. m. Monday, June 15 x- Tampa Bay at Chicago, 7 p. m. Wednesday, June 17 x- Chicago at Tampa Bay, 7 p. m. x — if necessary. Blackhawks 5 Ducks 3 Saturday’s game First Period 1. Chicago, Toews 8 ( Hjalmarsson, Kane) 2: 23. 2. Chicago, Toews 9 ( Richards, Keith) 11: 55 ( pp). Penalties — Silfverberg Ana ( hooking) 11: 08. Second Period 3. Chicago, Saad 6 ( Kane, Oduya) 1: 18. 4. Chicago, Hossa 4 ( Richards) 13: 45. 5. Anaheim, Kesler 7 ( Silfverberg, Beauchemin) 18: 51. Penalties — Kruger Chi ( tripping) 17: 55, Vatanen Ana ( hooking) 18: 38, Kesler Ana ( slashing) 19: 41. Third Period 6. Anaheim, Perry 10 ( Maroon, Getzlaf) 11: 36. 7. Chicago, Seabrook 6 ( Kane, Keith) 13: 23 ( pp). 8. Anaheim, Beleskey 8 ( Fowler, Lindholm) 19: 18 ( pp). Penalties — Fowler Ana ( hooking) 12: 49, Oduya Chi ( delay of game) 18: 58. Shots on goal by Chicago 6 10 10 — 26 Anaheim 8 18 12 — 38 Goal — Chicago: Crawford ( W, 9- 4- 0); Anaheim: Andersen ( L, 11- 5- 0). Power plays ( goal- chances) Chicago: 2- 4; Anaheim: 1- 2. Referees — Dan O’Halloran, Kelly Sutherland. Linesmen — Pierre Racicot, Shane Heyer. Attendance — 17,375 at Anaheim. Scoring Leaders G A Pts Tyler Johnson, TB 12 9 21 Nikita Kucherov, TB 9 10 19 Ryan Getzlaf, Ana 2 17 19 Patrick Kane, Chi 10 7 17 Corey Perry, Ana 9 8 17 Steven Stamkos, TB 7 10 17 J. Silfverberg, Ana 4 13 17 D. Brassard, NYR 9 7 16 Jonathan Toews, Chi 7 9 16 Alex Killorn, TB 7 9 16 Duncan Keith, Chi 2 14 16 Ondrej Palat, TB 7 8 15 Rick Nash, NYR 5 9 14 Ryan Kesler, Ana 6 6 12 Derek Stepan, NYR 5 7 12 Patrick Sharp, Chi 4 8 12 Marian Hossa, Chi 3 9 12 Sami Vatanen, Ana 3 8 11 Valtteri Filppula, TB 3 8 11 Keith Yandle, NYR 2 9 11 Pat Maroon, Ana 7 3 10 Zach Parise, Minn 4 6 10 Dan Boyle, NYR 3 7 10 Victor Hedman, TB 1 9 10 Chris Kreider, NYR 7 2 9 Brent Seabrook, Chi 5 4 9 Alex Ovechkin, Wash 5 4 9 Andrew Shaw, Chi 4 5 9 J. Gaudreau, Cgy 4 5 9 A. Cogliano, Ana 3 6 9 R. McDonagh, NYR 3 6 9 Joel Ward, Wash 3 6 9 Brad Richards, Chi 2 7 9 H. Lindholm, Ana 2 7 9 Cam Fowler, Ana 2 7 9 Matt Beleskey, Ana 7 1 8 Jiri Hudler, Cgy 4 4 8 N. Backstrom, Wash 3 5 8 J. T. Miller, NYR 1 7 8 P. K. Subban, Mtl 1 7 8 F. Beauchemin, Ana 0 8 8 Kevin Shattenkirk, StL0 8 8 Vlad Tarasenko, StL 6 1 7 Brandon Saad, Chi 5 2 7 Max Pacioretty, Mtl 5 2 7 E. Kuznetsov, Wash 5 2 7 Jason Chimera, Wash 3 4 7 Kevin Hayes, NYR 2 5 7 Kris Russell, Cgy 2 5 7 Simon Despres, Ana 1 6 7 Martin St. Louis, NYR 1 6 7 Anton Stralman, TB 1 6 7 Dennis Wideman, Cgy 0 7 7 Filip Forsberg, Nash 4 2 6 Jesper Fast, NYR 3 3 6 J. Pominville, Minn 3 3 6 Sean Monahan, Cgy 3 3 6 Teuvo Teravainen, Chi 2 4 6 A S family members took pictures with the Stanley Cup before the parade through the streets of Tampa, then- Lightning general manager Jay Feaster told veteran defenceman Darryl Sydor he was the 2004 champion’s missing ingredient. Sydor, a mid- season trade pickup, appreciated the kind words but pointed at 24- year- olds Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier and told Feaster: “ It’s those guys that win a Stanley Cup for you.” Eleven years later, Feaster sees a Lightning team with a more intellectual coach and younger leadership group but one that has many of the same qualities of the group that won the first Cup in franchise history. Now it’s 24- year- olds Steven Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Victor Hedman, 25- yearold Alex Killorn, 23- year- old Ondrej Palat and 21- year- old Nikita Kucherov leading the Lightning into the Cup final against the Chicago Blackhawks. “ Your best players are your young players,” Feaster said in a phone interview Sunday. Goaltender Ben Bishop’s numbers aren’t as impressive as Nikolai Khabibulin’s in 2004, but he boasts two Game 7 shutouts. Johnson could follow Richards as a Conn Smythe Trophy winner if he keeps up his torrid scoring pace, and his “ Triplets” line has led Tampa Bay. “ The stuff that Johnson and Palat and Kucherov have done not only in the regular season but in the playoffs is, I think, very similar to what Brad Richards and Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis and even Ruslan Fedotenko did, scoring key goals,” said Chris Dingman, a member of that 2004 Cup team. “ I just look at it as some young players that are kind of coming into their own that are good players turning into great players.” Youth has served the Lightning extremely well these playoffs, as the top five scorers are all 25 or younger. They have only one player who’s older than 31, winger Brenden Morrow, and don’t look the least intimidated by biggame situations. In 2004, Tampa Bay leaned on Sydor, 40- year- old captain Dave Andreychuk and 34- year- old Tim Taylor for vital lessons. Taylor stood up after a crushing Game 6 loss in the Eastern Conference final and said “ We’ve got to look the devil in the eye and go for it.” “ They knew when to talk, they knew when to calm things down, they knew when to help set a tone and keep things in perspective,” said Feaster, now the Lightning’s executive director of community hockey development. “ But it was the younger guys who were the ones who were contributing and scoring the goals and leading us in terms of the production.” Stamkos has done both. In his first full season as captain, the Markham, Ont., native made his statement the morning of Game 7 against the New York Rangers when he said none of their dominance in those situations mattered because it didn’t happen against the Lightning. “ It doesn’t matter if you’re 40 or 25,” said Dingman, now a Lightning analyst. “ If you’re a leader, you can be a leader.” Feaster, who served as GM until he was fired in 2008 and later held that job with the Calgary Flames, is not involved in hockey operations and insists his judgments of this Lightning team come “ from the outside looking in.” One player remains who he drafted: Killorn, who has 16 post- season points as a second- line winger. The organization has almost completely turned over since then, from ownership through the front office and down to the coaching staff and roster. One of the biggest differences appears to be coaching, where no one would confuse the soft- spoken Jon Cooper for the abrasive John Tortorella. But Feaster doesn’t think they’re polar opposites. “ Torts was much more acidic and difficult with the media and snarly, but all of that was still part of his swagger, and he wanted his team to have swagger, too,” Feaster said. “( Cooper) talks in that quiet, professorial, erudite way... And yet I do believe that he has that same kind of swagger about him.” There’s no shortage of swagger in these Lightning, who follow the 2004 team’s mantra of “ Safe is death.” They’re able to create and attack with speed and skill and also shut down opponents to play textbook road hockey. In the two- time- champion Blackhawks, the opponent may be even more daunting than the Flames were 11 years ago. But Feaster believes this team is Cup- worthy. “ I like the mix. I think there are the same kind of key pieces there,” he said. “ I think that when they commit that they’re going to play the system and they stick to it, this team is more than capable of winning a championship.” — The Canadian Press THE Anaheim Ducks stared at their playoff demons Saturday and blinked. Again. So ended another promising season for the Ducks, who pretty much romped through the 82- game schedule but lacked the mental toughness to successfully navigate the minefield of the Stanley Cup playoffs to a happy conclusion. Their 5- 3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Western Conference final gave them an unenviable hat trick’s worth of home Game 7 losses the last three seasons, after a first- round loss to Detroit in 2013 and a second- round loss to the Kings last season. It’s also the third straight time they were unable to close out a series after taking a 3- 2 lead. The Blackhawks are a good team. A very good team. They’re going to the Cup final for the third time in six seasons and are hoping to win their third championship in that span. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s speed will challenge them, but the Blackhawks have experience under pressure the Lightning lack. But no matter how good the Blackhawks are, the Ducks gave in to them too meekly in Game 6 in Chicago and again Saturday at home to think they can get further with this same group. Beating the up- and- coming Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames was one thing. Beating the champion- pedigreed Blackhawks was too big a task. “ There are no words,” Ducks left- winger Patrick Maroon said in the sombre locker- room at Honda Center. “ One game. We lose two. Especially the one at home. We have to come back another year.” The disappointment was too deep for him to take consolation from the notion the Ducks have gone one round deeper each of the last two seasons. “ You don’t want progress. You want results,” he said. “ You want to be there. We were so close. One game away in their barn, one game away in our barn. You can say all you want that we’re making progress, but at the end of the day you want results. “ I know they’re a good hockey team over there but we’re a great hockey team, too. We have better players in here than they do and I think at the end of the day we need to be better. That’s what it comes down to.” They need someone to display the indomitable will of Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, who would not be denied when the Ducks put defensive ace Ryan Kesler against him or when they tried to see whether Ryan Getzlaf could stop him. They need to develop the mental strength of the Blackhawks, who absorbed dozens of hits by the Ducks game after game but bounced right back up to make game- deciding plays. So much for the Ducks’ idea if they continued to hit the top four members of Chicago’s defence corps those defenders would eventually be worn down. They weren’t so worn down Saturday that they couldn’t dominate at the start and, at the end, throw their arms in the air in glee and pose near — but not in contact with — the Clarence Campbell bowl to celebrate their West championship. Ducks captain Getzlaf said he sensed before the game all would be well, certainly better than when the jittery Ducks were blown out by the Kings in the first period of their Game 7 matchup last season. “ Yeah. I felt better. I felt like the room was better. More prepared to do what we needed to do,” he said. “ And then it’s a matter of going out and executing. We can’t win the game from in here. We’ve got to go out and execute on the ice. And there’s another team out there that’s trying to do the same thing.” Except the Blackhawks didn’t just try to do it — they accomplished it. And each time the Ducks mounted a bit of pushback, such as when they cut Chicago’s lead to 4- 2 past the midway point of the third period, the Ducks sabotaged themselves with bad and badly timed mistakes. Cam Fowler, tying to get past Marian Hossa in the offensive zone, made one move too many and gave the puck to Hossa; to stop a counterattack, Fowler took a penalty and the Blackhawks scored their final goal, taking a 5- 2 lead at 13: 23 of the third period. “ It’s miserable. It’s an awful feeling and I just feel like me, personally, I let a lot of people down. I think as a team we let a lot of people down,” Fowler said, fighting back tears. “ We felt like we had a special thing going and for it to be over is a pretty surreal feeling. It doesn’t feel like we deserve to be done yet, but that’s how it goes.” It felt all too familiar for the Ducks, falling short yet again. — Los Angeles Times Young bucks power Bolts Stamkos, Johnson, Palat fuel the engine By Stephen Whyno RYAN REMIORZ / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES How the tables have turned: A 24- year- old Brad Richards was credited for helping Tampa Bay win the Stanley Cup in 2004. He’ll be reunited in the final with his old team, but he’ll be wearing a Blackhawks jersey. ‘ The stuff that Johnson and Palat and Kucherov have done not only in the regular season but in the playoffs is, I think, very similar to what Brad Richards and Vinny Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis and even Ruslan Fedotenko did, scoring key goals’ — Chris Dingman, a member of the Cup- winning 2004 Lightning By Helene Elliott Ducks done in by their own demons C_ 03_ Jun- 01- 15_ FP_ 01. indd C3 5/ 31/ 15 10: 21: 07 PM