Patrick Sharp is one of the seven Chicago Blackhawks players that have been key members of each of the last two Stanley Cup titles. As such, he’s expected to be among the more disciplined players in the high-pressure situations.
However, shortly after the Blackhawks tied the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-3 early in the third period, Sharp tripped Bolts defenseman Anton Stralman in a bit of an unforced error that sapped some of his team’s momentum. The penalty came just 1:21 after a somewhat controversial goal scored by Brent Seabrook to get the Blackhawks off on the right foot in the third period.
Chicago managed to kill the tripping penalty, however Sharp committed another costly error. Just 18 seconds after his first penalty expired, Sharp was once again careless with his stick and ended up high-sticking Lightning forward Ryan Callahan to go right back into the box.
This time, the Lightning scored as defenseman Jason Garrison’s point shot glanced off Blackhawks forward Andrew Desjardins and past Corey Crawford to make it 4-3. It proved to be the decisive goal in the game, allowing the Lightning to even the series.
Sharp was contrite after the game as he answered multiple questions about his errors. Video via the Chicago Sun-Times:
“Small mistakes were the difference,” Sharp said standing in front of his locker. “It’s frustrating to take two quick penalties like that. It puts a lot of stress on our penalty kill.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, but it happened. I take responsibility and I apologized to our penalty killers for putting them under that much stress.”
Brandon Saad, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marcus Kruger and Duncan Keith each spent over two full minutes of ice time in the third period killing penalties. That’s a lot of extra ice time in a short amount of time.
Sharp hit the ice for just three more shifts after taking the second penalty. He was on the ice for the last-ditch effort to equalize with the extra attacker, however.
“Tough timing,” Joel Quenneville said of Sharp’s penalties after the game. “I know we just got the big goal then we had to kill four minutes. Maybe [we were] a little tired on the kill towards the latter part of it. We did an outstanding job on the first one, almost got through the second one.”
These things can happen over the course of the game, but it’s hard to believe it was a veteran of Sharp’s caliber who committed the infractions at that crucial time in the game. Coming into Game 2, Sharp had committed just two minor penalties all postseason. Both stick infractions Saturday just came down to simple carelessness and maybe even a little bad luck, too.
The margin for error is thin as it is in the playoffs, but it’s especially thin in this series with two teams that appear to be able to strike at any moment. Garrison’s power-play tally on the second power play was one of only two shots on goal the entire third period for the Lightning.
Sharp’s penalties weren’t the only mistakes the Blackhawks made in the game. The goal Crawford allowed to Tyler Johnson in the second period was on a shot he's expected to stop. There was also Kyle Cumiskey’s misplay on a loose puck behind Chicago's that resulted in Tampa Bay’s first tally of the game.
Those things helped add up to a 4-3 scoreline and a tied series.
“You have to fight for every inch out there,” Sharp said. “It was just small differences.”
