The first period was all Chicago, but the Los Angeles Kings still took a 1-0 lead on the road when goaltender Corey Crawford mishandled the puck. The Blackhawks and Crawford deserve a lot of credit for staying focused despite that.
They stayed strong and managed to beat Jonathan Quick twice despite what was an impressive outing by the Kings’ netminder. Consequently, Chicago has taken Game 1 on the strength of a 2-1 victory.
Here are the game notes:
- Chicago outshot the Kings 9-0, 13-1, and 17-2 in the first period, but as mentioned above, Los Angeles still took an early lead.
- Speaking of which, this was just the fourth time in 13 postseason contests that Chicago fell behind 1-0. Saturday’s contest was also the second time in the 2013 playoffs that the Kings were defeated after netting the first goal.
- Kings forward Mike Richards was minus-seven in three contests against Chicago during the regular season and minus-one against Chicago in Game 1.
- These two teams were 13th and 14th in the first two rounds of the playoffs when it came to winning faceoffs. The Kings had a slight edge in Game 1 by winning 33 of 64 faceoffs.
- 12 of the Los Angeles Kings’ first 14 playoff contests have been decided by just one goal.