First things first. High marks to the Blackhawks, who, in my opinion, played their best game of the series so far. Their puck management was crisp. They went north-south with the puck, consistently getting it in deep to the Lightning d-zone. They defended well without the puck, which prevented the Lightning from getting extended offensive zone shifts. Goaltender Corey Crawford played well, as he did in Game Four, but the ‘Hawks did a terrific job of clearing Crawford’s rebounds. As they have done throughout the series, Chicago was dominant on faceoffs.
Having written that, the ‘Hawks got some breaks in this game.