For the first time since 1961 the Chicago Blackhawks can call themselves the 2009-2010 Stanley Cup Champions. One of the top ranked teams during the regular season, the Blackhawks continued their determined path to Lord Stanley, making it through the playoffs with an unrelenting style of play. The Blackhawks went into Game 6 of the finals with a 3-2 lead on the persistent Philadelphia Flyers and finished them off in overtime.
Though the Blackhawks were the favorite to win the Cup, the Flyers put off a good fight, matching each Chicago goal with one of their own. Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd contributed goals in the first 3 periods, while Philadelphia's Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell kept their team caught up, with Hartnell scoring the last 2 goals.
But it was Patrick Kane who was the difference maker in this high-energy game, delivering a wrist shot less than 5 minutes into the overtime period to clich the title for the Blackhawks. Kane was also responsible for 2 of the 3 assists for the previous goals.
For Marian Hossa, winning the Cup has been long overdue. In the 2007-2008 season he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins and made it all the way to the finals, only to lose to the Red Wings. Determined to get his Stanley Cup ring, Hossa left the Penguins the following year to join the Chicago Blackhawks, only to watch his former team, led by Sidney Crosby, take the championship. And now, for the first time in his 13-year NHL career, the Slovakian right-winger has lifted the Cup.
Youngster Jonathan Toews, who already has an Olympic gold medal in his trophy case, can not only add the Stanley Cup Championship, but the Conn Smythe Trophy for MVP as well. With this achievement, Toews becomes only the second NHL player to have won Olympic gold and a Stanley Cup in one year, after Patrick Roy.
Chicago Blackhawks vs Philadelphia Flyers, June 9 2010
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