by Joe Lami

Chicago @ Tampa Bay 1-0 Hawks lead series: Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford who had 22 saves in game one against the Tampa Bay Lighting on Wednesday night’s 2-1 win. The Lighting exploded with shots on Crawford and it kind of helped Crawford settle in and only allowed one goal in the one goal defeat of Tampa Bay. Crawford allowed one goal on a crazy redirection it was absolutely insane. This shows the great hand of the Lighting forward Alex Killorn who scored at 4:31 in the first period.

Killorn’s shot took a crazy deflection in the left circle and was he able to get his stick on the puck and it was an amazing goal and all of a sudden towards the end of the game in the last six and half minutes that’s where the Hawks were able to completely take over the scoreboard as they controlled the latter part of the game at least in the shot department not allowing the Lighting any shots in the final frame.

In the second half of the game the Blackhawks completely dominated it and it was only game one and more importantly for Chicago it was a road game. Now the Hawks officially stole home ice away already in the first game and if the Hawks can take game two in Tampa Bay on Saturday they would have a chance to sweep when they get back to Chicago.

The Hawks key player on Wednesday night was Teuvo Teravainen who had a goal and an assist with the second Chicago goal and he provided the kind of third line production that you need to see in the playoffs. He was able to takeover and he joked with the media after the game and he said to the media “I shouldn’t have scored that first goal I’m going to have to talk to the media.”

Teravainen had two points and he was actually on the ice for all three goals that were scored in the contest and it ended up being a plus one rating. The one shot on net found the back of the net at 11:51 from Teravainen in the third period for his total ice time. The goal that was scored by the Hawks Antonine Vermette at 15:26 in the third period was on an amazing forecheck it was set up by Patrick Sharp after a dump and chase play.

It was Sharp on a forecheck that really started the play and they were able to capitalize after the puck went into slot and Vermette was able to find the back of the net to get the eventual gamer.

Joe Lami is an NHL analyst for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below