Blackhawks

The San Francisco Bay Blackhawks managed to do what the Maryland Bays couldn't, outshoot Albany on penalty kicks, 4-3, and win the American Professional Soccer League championship.In front of a home crowd of 12,411 in San Jose State Stadium, San Francisco used goals by Townsend Qin and Marcelo Balboa to even the finals at one game apiece, with a 2-0 victory in Game 2.It then was forced to out-shoot Albany on penalty kicks, when the 30-minute mini-game ended in a draw.For Albany it looked like a replay of the semifinal, where it had defeated the Maryland Bays.

'95-96 Bulls unstoppable K.C. Johnson Chicago Tribune The Bulls appeared vulnerable in the fall of 1995. Michael Jordan's return from his first retirement and baseball experiment in the spring had led to uneven moments, including a second-round playoff exit to the Magic. Then the 1995-96 season started. And the Bulls won their first five games, 10 of their first 11, 23 of their first 26 and on and on and on. In fact, after dropping to 23-3, the Bulls reeled off a franchise-record, 18-game win streak to move to 41-3.

CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks wing Jocelyn Lemieux kept two score cards Thursday night. One was a personal check list to see how he stacked up against his brother, Claude, who plays for the New Jersey Devils."

It was a beautiful Saturday — crisp but not cold and sunny with just enough breeze — to walk over the grounds of the Liriodendron Mansion in Bel Air and to pay homage to America's veterans and learn quite a lot about what it means to serve in defense of the nation. The expectations for the final day of Bel Air's three-day Veterans Day celebration were largely fulfilled, the organizers of Saturday's events at Liriodendron said. The weather cooperated, all the exhibitors showed up and, most importantly, so did the community.

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Chicago Blackhawks looked disoriented. And who could blame them?They awoke here in Edmonton yesterday morning in their eighth month of hockey and saw a spring snowstorm outside their hotel windows. Welcome to Alberta, where the only dependable season is the hockey calendar.So when the Blackhawks shivered and shrugged through a poor opening period last night, the Edmonton Oilers appeared to have them on the run and out of their comfort zone. But the Blackhawks fooled them, warming to their task after falling behind 2-0 in the first period of the Campbell Conference final.

WASHINGTON -- Moments after the Maryland Bays had defeated the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks, 2-1, last night at RFK Stadium, Jean Harbor said, while waving his arms in exasperation, "What is it they want us to do to prove ourselves?"Harbor was referring to the general feeling among the Blackhawks players and among American Professional Soccer League coaches that San Francisco still is a better team than the defending league champion Bays.In a preseason poll of APSL coaches, San Francisco was rated ahead of Maryland in 11 of 12 team and individual categories.

LANDOVER -- Suddenly there were very few kind words to describe what happened to the previously unbeaten Washington Capitals last night.The 4-0 start had been obliterated by an aggressive Chicago Blackhawks team before 17,381 at the Capital Centre.The final score: Chicago 7, Washington 2.It was kind of ugly.No one expected the Capitals to go unbeaten.But coach Terry Murray expected a better show from a team that had just taken apart a pretty good New York Rangers squad, 5-1, Friday night at the Capital Centre.

PITTSBURGH -- Remember that grouchy guy who coached the Philadelphia Flyers for four seasons and into two championship finals, before getting fired for being too tough? He's finally lightened up, and he likes it.By his own admission, Mike Keenan is as happy and contented as he's ever been. If you didn't know that the Stanley Cup finals had gotten under way last night, you might have thought Keenan had already won the NHL's biggest prize."I'm relaxed," said Keenan, whose Chicago Blackhawks played the Pittsburgh Penguins last night in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final series at the Civic Arena.

It could be a title match. Last season, that's exactly what it was when the Maryland Bays played the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks for the championship of the American Professional Soccer League.But this season it is more, and it is less.It is just the first of four meetings between the teams that strangely find themselves members of the same Western Division in the newly designed league structure.Yet it is also the first meeting since that championship thriller that went to a shootout before the Bays finally prevailed, 1-0.And it is the game that will begin to answer the question of which team is better in 1991.

CHICAGO -- Construction is well under way on a new Chicago Stadium across from the Blackhawks' historic and raucous home on 1800 West Madison St., and that can only be good news for the Washington Capitals and the rest of the NHL.The Caps' 6-2 loss last night was their sixth straight at the stadium. All-Star goalie Ed Belfour, in a 37-save performance, and a handful of defensive miscues were the responsible culprits."They might want to delay construction for the next couple of years," Capitals coach Terry Murray said of the Blackhawks, who are 14-3-4 at home with Belfour in goal.

Anne Arundel County's youth soccer Blackhawks have played this season with Trooper Shaft S. Hunter's memory firmly in mind. Hunter, who was killed in an on-duty crash this spring, was a major benefactor of the team. His son, Deion, is a midfielder for the Blackhawks, and Hunter regularly worked extra shifts to help pay for players who could not afford team fees and travel costs. "Those are sort of like his sons," his wife, Rose Hunter, said. The Blackhawks, ages 13-14, won their regional championship this year and earned a second-straight bid to the US Club Soccer national finals.

Favre's toughness Dom Amore Hartford Courant This is one debate in which there is no shame in finishing second. But we have to pick one, and for sheer toughness I have to go with the NFL quarterback. To play 162 baseball games over roughly 180 days is very difficult, and few players do it today, even for one season. It's grueling, and even if one is lucky enough to avoid injuries, the fatigue is a formidable obstacle. It's also unnecessary for a baseball player to play every game, the primary reason it's not done much these days.

This hasn't been an easy Stanley Cup finals for goalies. The wide-open play has led to 40 goals, most through the first five games of the finals since the Islanders and North Stars combined for 42 in 1981 and most in a finals series of any length since the Rangers and Canucks had 40 in seven games in 1994. "I don't think we envisioned scoring at the rate we're scoring at," said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, whose team has 21 goals to 19 for the Flyers. While Quenneville has stuck with Antti Niemi despite the occasional soft goal, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has yanked starter Michael Leighton in Games 1 and 5. It is the first time a goalie has been pulled twice in the finals since North Stars coach Bob Gainey did it to Jon Casey during the last two games in 1991.

CHICAGO — In show business, a performer's rule of thumb is always to leave the feeling you have something more to give. And that worked for the Blackhawks as it had for the Flyers. Building on a strong third-period effort in their Friday loss that had evened the Stanley Cup finals at 2-2, the Blackhawks rolled to a 3-0 first-period lead and wound up with a 7-4 win, leaving them one victory from claiming their first Cup since 1961. The Flyers had done the same in the third period of the defeat that gave the Hawks a 2-0 series lead.

PHILADELPHIA — Flyers coach Peter Laviolette likes to remind anyone who asks about his team's ability to handle pressure. "At Christmas time, we were 29th in the league," he said. "We're just a resilient group. We keep pushing. Pressure is more for teams who are expected to win, like the Blackhawks." The seventh-seeded Flyers might just become one of the NHL's classic underdog stories after rallying to even the Stanley Cup finals against the Blackhawks at two games apiece with a 5-3 victory in Game 4 on Friday night at the Wachovia Center.

CHICAGO — The Blackhawks delivered on their promise to tighten up their defense and lend a little help to their assaulted goalie Monday night in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals. It didn't lack for dramatics though. The Hawks took a 2-0 series lead on Monday night at the United Center with a 2-1 victory against the Flyers when goalie Antti Niemi held the lead in the face of 15 third-period shots. "Both teams kind of got back to playing better defensively and playing smarter with the puck," Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith said.

CHICAGO -- Never mind that the Washington Capitals' road record is so good that it almost matches the Chicago Blackhawks' home record.Statistics are irrelevant in Chicago Stadium, where the rink is the smallest in the league, the organ, at full volume, would shatter every piece of glass in the building, and the fans routinely drown out the national anthem.It doesn't make the 4-2 loss the Capitals suffered to the Blackhawks last night any easier to take, but since Washington hasn't won in Chicago since 1988, it's not a new feeling.

LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals' losing streak stretched to four, their longest of the season, last night, as the Chicago Blackhawks won a 4-3 National Hockey League game at the Capital Centre.The Blackhawks, leaders of the Norris Division, took a 2-0 lead early in the first period before a sellout crowd of 18,130. Washington tied the score at 2-2 and cut the lead to 4-3 on Mikhail Tatarinov's power-play goal with 7 minutes, 40 seconds remaining.Ed Belfour (13-4-1) was outstanding in goal for Chicago, which got goals from Wayne Presley, Jeremy Roenick, Michel Goulet and Dave Manson.

CHICAGO — As part of a morning pep talk, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette told his players that they had prepared and labored for 10 months to reach this point of the season.Veteran winger Ian Laperriere piped up that he had waited 15 years for this opportunity. Blackhawks fans might remind them that they've endured 49 years hoping for a Stanley Cup trophy to make a trip to Chicago. Both teams played with plenty of pent up emotion in a bombs-away scoring-spree Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night at the United Center with the Blackhawks walking away with an 6-5 victory.

Hawks' Buff too tough Helene Elliott Los Angeles Times Remember this name: Dustin Byfuglien (pronounced BUFF-lin). If the Blackhawks' beefy power forward can be as effective as he was throughout their Western Conference final sweep of the Sharks, the Stanley Cup will reside in Chicago for the first time since 1961. Remember this name: Chris Pronger. Though the Flyers defenseman isn't as mean as he used to be, he's still menacing and might be the only man strong enough to budge Byfuglien away from the net. That could stop Chicago's top line of Byfuglien, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews or create chances for Kane and the magnificent Toews.