Although they were matched in overall wins in the regular season, the Blackhwaks are the one team that the Calgary Flames would have wanted to avoid in the post-season. Chicago dominated Calgary in the regular season series, posting a record of 4-0-0 and outscoring the Flames 19 to 7. With statistics like these, fans were expecting a much different performance by the Blackhawks than they displayed last night in game one at the United Center in Chicago.
From the moment the puck dropped, Calgary played a physical game to establish their presence and stir up the inexperienced Blackhawks — only ten of their players have playoff experience, and their lack of confidence showed early on in the game. However, Calgary’s level of play was matched by Chicago later in the second; after tying the game at one in the middle frame, then again falling behind in the third, Chicago’s stand-out player of the night, Martin Havlat, evened the game with 5:33 to go in the game after scoring off his own rebound.
With the game unsettled after 60 minutes, the two teams went into overtime expecting a hard-hitting battle for the win that, if the previous periods had shown, would be a long and even-matched series of periods. However, once again Havlat shined for the Blackhawks and scored only 12 seconds into the extra period on a controversial goal that saw Chicago’s Andrew Ladd accidentally-on-purpose interfere with Mikka Kiprusoff. Havlat’s performance landed him the first star of the night. When these two teams meet again on Saturday, Calgary will no doubt up their already high level of play to return the favor to the Blackhawks, aiming to tie the series at one a piece.