FEATURE: The Goals That Defined an Era of Blackhawks Hockey

A special to Blackhawks.com by former Public Address Announcer with more than 65 years of Blackhawks hockey coverage.

While winning the Stanley Cup is never easy, the first goal is making the playoffs. The Chicago Blackhawks began a nine-year postseason streak in 2009 and went on to win three Stanley Cups in six years, becoming the first team in the salary cap era to be labeled a modern-era dynasty.

To win three Stanley Cups over that stretch, there had to be some memorable goals scored at timely moments. And the Blackhawks delivered plenty of them.

Who could forget Patrick Kane’s hat trick in Game 6 against the Vancouver Canucks at the United Center, a performance that announced the Blackhawks’ arrival as legitimate contenders?

The following year, with the Blackhawks entering the Stanley Cup Playoffs as one of the favorites, they drew All-Star goaltender Pekka Rinne and the Nashville Predators in the opening round. It didn’t go as planned.

The Predators won two of the first four games to tie the series before a crucial Game 5 at the United Center. Nashville grabbed a 4-3 lead late in the third period, and Marian Hossa was called for a five-minute major boarding penalty with 63 seconds remaining in regulation.

"I tried to go for the puck,'' Hossa said after the game. "The guy turned his back to me. You don't want to hit a player that way, but I couldn't stop my motion."

The Blackhawks were in trouble. Joel Quenneville pulled his goaltender for an extra attacker to make it a 5-on-5 situation, and Kane — who had rarely killed penalties before — was on the ice as Chicago searched for the tying goal.

"Sometimes you catch a break,'' Kane said. "Five-on-five with the goalie pulled you're trying to do everything you can to score a goal.''

With 13.6 seconds left, he did just that. Bedlam ensued at the United Center after what is widely regarded as perhaps the most important goal of the Blackhawks’ dynasty era.

"Nothing tops it,'' Kane said. "Thirteen seconds left to tie and keep us in the series, probably. Going to Nashville down 3-2, that would be a tough game to win."

Andrew Ladd recalled the moment years later to the Chicago Sun-Times: "Being down, being in the box with no time remaining in the game, we didn’t think we really had much of a shot to even get an opportunity to tie it. Ninety-nine times out of 100, you’re not scoring shorthanded with a minute left in a playoff game to take the game to overtime. But we did it.”

But the job wasn’t finished. The Blackhawks still had to kill the remainder of Hossa’s major penalty in overtime.

“I feel shame,” Hossa reminisced 10 years later. "I’m sweating bullets for five minutes. It’s 4-4, we go to the dressing room and I’m sitting quiet in the corner of the dressing room and I’m hoping we can kill another four minutes of my penalties."

Well, they did, and as soon as the penalty expired, Hossa jumped out of the box, went straight to the net and tapped in the game-winning goal to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 series lead.

“You can see me there in the corner coming from the penalty box [to be] in front of the net," Hossa said. "The puck is coming to me and all I have to do is just put it into the net. One of the most amazing feelings in my career. I still got the chills.”

Those two iconic goals propelled the Blackhawks through the rest of the playoffs. They closed out the Predators in Game 6, eliminated the Canucks in the second round, swept the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Final and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

Appearing in the Final for the first time since 1992, the Blackhawks faced the Eastern Conference champion and seventh-seeded Philadelphia Flyers. With home-ice advantage, Chicago won the first two games at the United Center before the Flyers tied the series by winning Games 3 and 4.

Back in Chicago for Game 5, the Blackhawks prevailed 7-4, setting up a chance to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

Game 6 in Philadelphia seesawed to a 3-3 tie after regulation to go into overtime. Four minutes into the overtime, Kane fired a shot at former Chicago goaltender Michael Leighton. Kane threw his stick in the air and skated to his bench. The red light signifying a goal never went on, and it seemed only Kane and Leighton initially knew Chicago had won its first Stanley Cup in 49 years. The replay confirmed the victory.

"I knew it went in right away," Kane said after the game. "What a feeling. I can't believe it. We just won the Stanley Cup. I can't believe this just happened. It's something you dream about, scoring the final goal in the Stanley Cup finals."

The Captain was left speechless, too. 

"There's so many great things about winning a Stanley Cup. This is it," Jonathan Toews said. "This is the best feeling you can ever get. I just can't believe it's happened."

More than 15 years later, Kane still sometimes can't believe it. 

"I've had bad dreams where that puck isn't in the net and I'm jumping up and down the ice, skating down the ice," Kane said. "[I'm] so happy and lucky that it went in the net and it really did kind of stuck near the back pad there."

The monkey was off the Blackhawks’ backs, going from being named the worst franchise in pro sports by ESPN to a Stanley Cup champion. And it was only the first of three.

Three years later, the Blackhawks were on the verge of another special run in 2013. And oh, how close the second of those three Cups came to never happening.

In the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Blackhawks faced their archrival Detroit Red Wings, who jumped out to a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Presidents' Trophy winners suddenly found themselves in a deep hole despite entering as the favorite.

After clawing their way back to force a Game 7 at the United Center, the Blackhawks appeared to score the go-ahead goal with 1:47 remaining in the third period on a slap shot from Niklas Hjalmarsson. However, coincidental roughing minors to Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey and Blackhawks forward Brandon Saad behind the play negated the goal just as Hjalmarsson released the shot.

Needless to say, Chicago fans were not pleased.

"I went blank," Hjalmarsson said after the game. "I was so mad. I don’t know if you saw me, but it showed pretty clear — I almost threw my stick up in the crowd. I got pretty mad. I got pretty happy when I scored. I was probably looking like a fool when I was celebrating in the middle of the ice. Kind of a roller coaster there.”

Toews said there was a "violent" emotion on the Blackhawks' bench after the goal was waved off.

Even Brent Seabrook admitted: "To be honest, we thought it should have been game over and series over."

The Blackhawks regrouped during the intermission and came out with a renewed edge in overtime. And Mr. Overtime himself delivered, as Seabrook’s goal completed the series comeback and slayed the dragon that was the Red Wings.

"Something Joel always preached was: 'Shoot the puck' and 'it's never a bad time to take a shot," Seabrook recently said. "I just got across the blue line and I was by myself with Niklas Kronwall, and I just shot it and it hit his knee pad, hit the ice, and went top corner. I like to tell everybody that it went straight in, top corner, greatest shot ever, but it was off his knee pad and went top corner."

It’s one Blackhawks fans will remember forever.

"The goal goes in off my stick but it was a fight from every player and we just had a great couple games there and I was able to get us back into the fight," Seabrook said. "It was fun to be a part of that."

The Blackhawks went on to score several more clutch goals during that playoff run, whether it was Patrick Kane's double overtime winner from Jonathan Toews in Game 5 of the Western Conference that sent the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final and led to the iconic heartbreaker celebration, the Andrew Shaw "I love shin pads" triple overtime winner in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins, Seabrook adding yet another OT winner in Game 4, or, of course, “17 Seconds”.

On the quest for a third Stanley Cup in six years in 2015, the Blackhawks knew it was going to be an uphill battle, given the physical grind of deep back-to-back postseason runs in 2013 and 2014. And right out of the gates in Game 1 of the first round against the Nashville Predators, it was.

The Blackhawks fell into a 3-0 hole through one period of play, forcing Quenneville to make a goaltending change, substituting Corey Crawford for Scott Darling for the start of the second period.

"I literally puked," Darling said in a 2017 article in the Players' Tribune. "I went straight into the bathroom and threw up right in the toilet. And then I came back out and I looked around the room at Toews and Kaner and Seabs and Duncs and I was ready to roll."

Darling stopped all 42 shots he faced, which included 23 saves in the overtime periods.

"Playing a playoff game of this magnitude and that situation, that’s one of the greatest relief performances you’re going to see," Quenneville said after the game.

In double overtime, the Blackhawks' big-game players delivered. This time, it was Duncan Keith, who fired a 58-foot slapper from the blue line that found its way past Rinne as the Blackhawks completed the three-goal comeback to win 4-3.

"Bridgestone Arena just went quiet, and I just felt a tremendous sense of relief," Darling said. "I’ll tell my kids about it someday."

Keith scored three goals during that playoff run that earned him unanimous Conn Smythe Trophy honors. All three of them were game winners, which included the Stanley Cup clincher on home ice in Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"It doesn't matter the situation," Toews said after the first-round series wrapped up. "He wants to be the difference-maker. He wants to have the puck in those situations. That's why he's a leader in this locker room. That's why he's the player that he is."

The clutch goals continued throughout the Blackhawks' postseason run. Marcus Kruger's triple overtime goal in Game 2 against the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Final (after Shaw's head-butt goal was disallowed) stands out as important after the Blackhawks fell behind in Game 1. Or Antoine Vermette's double overtime goal in Game 4 to even the series up at 2-2 after he was a healthy scratch in Game 3. And who could forget Toews scored the opening two goals in Game 7 to eventually send the Blackhawks into yet another Stanley Cup Final appearance.

The clutch playoff goals are too many to name, and very few the city of Chicago will ever forget.