This Day In Blackhawks History: Crawford Clutch In Playoff Relief 2015

On this day in 2015, the Blackhawks were able to defeat the Nashville Predators in game 6 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In large part to an outstanding relief performance in net for Corey Crawford. Coming into this game, the Blackhawks were coming off of a loss in game 5 making the series 3-2 heading back to Chicago.

The Predators came out hot in this one scoring less than 2 minutes in with a goal from James Neal, a backhander that he was able to get past Scott Darling to give the Predators a 1-0 lead.

James Neal would double Nashville's lead with his second goal of the game. This one came 8 minutes in on the powerplay, a shot from Cody Franson that Neal was able to get a stick on and re-direct into the back of the net to make it 2-0 predators less than 10 minutes into the game. Definitely not the most ideal start, especially at home in a potential close-out game.

A few short minutes later though, the Blackhawks were able to get one back. Duncan Keith fired a shot from just inside the blue line that went wide of the net, off the boards, and then found the stick of Patrick Sharp before ending up in the back of the net. The lead was now cut in half at 2-1.


However, that would literally only last seconds as the Predators would make it 3-1 with a goal from Matt Cullen. Really bad defensive play overall for the Blackhawks as it was pretty much a solo effort from Cullen on the goal. This would be the end of Scott Darling's night as Corey Crawford was inserted into the game.

The addition the Crawford in the game seemed to inject life into the Blackhawks. They got on the board very quickly with a powerplay goal from the captain Jonathan Toews to make it 3-2 Predators with just over 7 minutes remaining in the first.

Then in the final seconds of the first, Patrick Kane would snipe one past Pekka Rinne glove-side to make it a 3-3 game going into the second period. It was a tie game and more importantly, the Blackhawks had all the momentum.

After an action packed first period, there were no goals for either side for all of the second period and much of the third period. That was until Duncan Keith got the puck near the blue line, gave two fake shots, then fired one past Rinne into the back of the net to give the Blackhawks their first lead of the game at 4-3. Ultimately, that goal would be the game winner as the Blackhawks would win the game 4-3, and the series 4-2.

Can't express enough how impressive of a performance this was from Corey Crawford. To come into a playoff game and have a save percentage of 100% is unbelievable. Corey Crawford was definitely the better goalie for the Blackhawks throughout that season, so it came as a surprise that he wasn't the one in net in a possible series clinching game. Irrelevant in the end as the Blackhawks were able to come out on top thanks to a great performance from Corey Crawford in relief. Just one of multiple great games that he had in those playoffs.

Take a look at the highlights of that game below: