The Stanley Cup Finals have just begun.
Before Game Four, we identified the third period as a key for the Chicago Blackhawks. Unfortunately, the first period buried the Hawks too deep on Friday night.
We’ll talk about the third period later, but the first period was absolutely awful.
Niklas Hjalmarsson had two terrible plays that resulted in first period goals for the Flyers who sprinted to a 3-1 lead.
Antti Niemi only faced eight shots in the first period, but none of the three goals were soft; Hjalmarsson should have received two assists.
The Hawks settled down in the second period and the two teams skated a rare scoreless 20 minutes.
Niemi appeared to settle down in the net, keeping all 10 shots out of the net that he faced in the second.
The Blackhawks were able to more consistently control the flow of the action and got good looks (13 shots), but couldn’t cash in.
Unfortunately for the Hawks, Ville Leino continued to torment them with a goal just under seven minutes into the third period that extended the Flyers’ lead to 4-1.
At this point, th ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by TAB BAMFORD
2010 Stanley Cup Finals: Series Now Best-of-Three
June 4th, 2010 by TAB BAMFORD Leave a reply »
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