Meet me in St. Looie.
That`s what the Blackhawks were saying after they ousted Detroit from the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 7-1 victory in Game 6 Thursday night at the Stadium.
Steve Larmer scored his team`s first two goals, including one in a three-goal second period that helped to build a 4-1 lead. And a guy named Presley had the fans rocking and rolling in the aisles when he scored his second goal of the night with 12 minutes 31 seconds left in the third period.
Then, almost everyone`s hat was off to winger Wayne Presley when he completed a hat trick on a fluke. Goalie Glen Hanlon, who replaced Greg Stefan in goal to start the last period, came out to clear the puck that had been dumped into the Wings` zone by a Hawk penalty-killer.
But a hustling Presley forced Hanlon to shoot the puck off his left leg, and it deflected back into the empty net. That`s the kind of glorious night it was for the Hawks.
Presley`s third short-handed goal of the series tied the National Hockey League record for most in a playoff series. Philadelphia`s Bill Barber did it in 1981.
With the Norris Division-winning Red Wings shoved out of the way, the Hawks now will face the second-place St. Louis Blues in the division finals. That series starts next Tuesday night on the banks of the Mississippi.
Triumph tasted especially sweet because the Chicago organization hadn`t won a NHL playoff round since 1985. That year, the Hawks made it all the way to the Campbell Conference finals before losing to Edmonton.
Very few expected the fourth-place Hawks to beat Detroit, even though they had a 4-2-2 record over the Wings in the regular season. But after losing Game 1, the Hawks won a critical Game 2 in Detroit before returning home to sweep a pair of games last weekend.
The Blues, in contrast to Detroit, were 6-1-1 against the Hawks this season and goalie Greg Millen had two shutouts.
But if the Hawks can upset again and win the division, they`ll be the first fourth-place team to have done so since the present divisional format was started in 1981-82. That would also put them on the doorstep of the Stanley Cup, an event Hawks coach Mike Keenan has visited two of the last four years as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Goals 26 seconds apart in the three-goal second period started the Hawks on their way to a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes and ignited a crowd of 17,289.
The period had started with the Hawks on the rocks, having to kill two consecutive penalties. But hard penalty-killing work presaged the success that was about to come on offense.
The tie-breaking goal occurred with 12:57 left in the period. Dan Vincelette smashed Wings defenseman Steve Chiasson on the back boards and the puck came out to Denis Savard. He pushed it ahead to Steve Larmer, who had Stefan to himself.
Larmer`s second goal of the game was his third of the series. He found it tough to score in the previous five games, but Larmer has been a clutch performer all season and he was there Thursday when he was most needed.
The lead jumped to 3-1 just :26 seconds later when left wing Steve Thomas, playing his second game since a shoulder injury put him on the shelve in January, made a pretty pass toward the slot for Presley, who back-handed the puck by Stefan.
Since the Hawks were notorious for blowing two-goal leads this season, the fans were happy to see Troy Murray`s goal build the advantage to 4-1 just under 12 minutes into the middle period.
Murray deflected a slap shot from the point by defenseman Keith Brown. It was the Hawks` second power-play goal of the game.
The Hawks tried to hurry along the third period with a defensive posture. It helped when Detroit`s Petr Klima received a five-minute penalty for high-sticking defenseman Trent Yawney just over four minutes into the period, with a game misconduct tagged on to the long power-play punishment.
The way referee Don Koharski started out calling the game, with five penalties in the opening six minutes, you figured the first goal would come on a power play.
It did, with Detroit`s Lee Norwood slamming a slap shot up the middle from the point. With his own defenseman blocking his view, goalie Alain Chevrier couldn`t stop Detroit from taking a 1-0 edge 6:21 into the game. Part of the Wings` game plan was to quiet the crowd in the first 10 minutes of the game.
The fans finally erupted when Larmer tied the score at 1 during a power play with 1:21 left in the period. The score came fresh off a Hawk line change. Savard roared off the bench to tie up Norwood as they skated for the puck the Hawks dumped into the zone.
The puck came off the back boards and squirted under both of them, and Larmer was in position to shoot it. The puck appeared to deflect off Stefan`s right skate and into the net for Larmer`s second goal in the series.
The Wings were in a 4-on-3 advantage on Norwood`s goal with penalties to Vincelette and Bob Murray sandwiched around a penalty to Detroit`s Gerard Gallant. Vincelette was whistled for interfering with Stefan.
Koharski was keeping a close eye on how both teams treated the goalies after Keenan and Wings coach Jacques Demers had a war of words in the Thursday morning papers about the treatment of Chevrier during this series. Keenan said the Wings were purposely trying to injure Chevrier. Demers denied it.
Koharski felt Vincelette was using his stick for interfere with Stefan around the crease. Since there had been hints of retribution if the referee wouldn`t protect Chevrier, Koharski obviously was going to pay close attention to the situation.
Later in the period, Stefan was called for high-sticking when he hammered Presley on the top of the head.
