Patrick Kane leads Blackhawks to Stanley Cup
The Chicago Blackhawks finally ended their Stanley Cup drought on Wednesday night when they beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 in overtime at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.
In what was one of the strangest finishes to a game, Patrick Kane stuffed the puck past Flyers keeper Michael Leighton at his near post, four minutes into overtime, to secure Chicago’s first Stanley Cup since 1961.
But as Kane shot and skated around the back of the goal, there was no red light, no signal, only the sight of Blackhawks players running onto the ice in celebration. As he skated behind the net, Kane lifted his arms in celebration – seemingly the only person who knew the game was over. His linemates then joined him, followed by the bench, before euphoria followed in Chicago.
"I knew it went in right away," Kane said. "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."
Not everyone was convinced it was a goal straight away.
"I was just hoping to God it was just an actual goal. They came back hard in the third and we just stuck with it,” said captain Jonathan Toews, the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as play-off MVP.
It was Toews, Chicago’s captain, who lifted the trophy for the Blackhawks, receiving it from commissioner Gary Bettman.
"There's so many great things about winning a Stanley Cup. This is it. This is the best feeling you can ever get. I just can't believe it's happened,” Toews said
Marian Hossa, who was a losing finalist the previous two years with Pittsburgh and Detroit, finally got his hands on the trophy.
"I'm so happy I finally did it. We couldn't just put our heads down. We had to work, and we knew we could do it,” Hossa said.
The win ends a 49-year drought for Chicago and ends the longest active title drought in the NHL and with a team stacked with talent the Blackhawks could be a force for years to come.
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