The Black Hawks salvaged a point Sunday in a 2-2 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers that left coach Bob Pulford pointing a finger after emerging from a lengthy, private meeting with owner Bill Wirtz.
Pulford`s index finger was aimed directly at referee Ron Fournier and linesmen Randy Mitton and Dan Schachte.
”After the game, I had words with them, and I certainly feel they didn`t do an adequate job,” said Pulford. ”It was a fairly one-sided conversation, you could say.
”It seemed like they were looking at white sweaters all day,” said Pulford, noting the 7-4 advantage Philadelphia had in power plays.
”Theoretically, they`re supposed to be seeing everything. I`m sure we`ll complain to the league. We`ll review the tapes.”
The Hawks will be using timers when they come to the part that shows the ejection of their No. 1 scorer, Denis Savard, who got a 10-minute misconduct penalty and was unavailable for the final 1 minute 13 seconds of regulation and the five-minute overtime. Teammate Al Secord also sat out most of that time for fighting.
Pulford and Savard admitted that Denis swung his stick at the Philadelphia bench, nearly hitting Rick Tocchet. But neither could understand the delay before Fournier made a call.
”I shouldn`t have done it,” said Savard, ”but why did it take so long to call? It must have been at least a couple of minutes.”
”It was a long time, I know that,” said Pulford. ”Mitton doesn`t miss much against us. Whether he saw it or not, I don`t know. It was a marginal call. You have to have some understanding.”
The coach`s other complaints included some key offside calls that Pulford said were missed, long delays in drops for faceoffs that made the game drag on for nearly 3 1/2 hours and numerous trips by the Flyers to their bench.
The coach wasn`t upset by the Hawks` determination to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time since Dec. 14. They had blown a third-period lead Saturday in Quebec City and eventually lost 8-5. Sunday, though, they managed their first point against either of last year`s Stanley Cup finalists in their last regular-season try.
”This was just a strange game,” said the Hawks` Darryl Sutter. ”You probably won`t see some of things that happened in this game in a long time.” In a highly charged atmosphere even by Stadium standards, the Hawks were outshot 46-26. Savard and Sutter scored the Hawk goals within a four-minute span of the first period.
The Hawks picked their spots against the hard-checking Flyers, taking only three shots through the game`s opening 12:15. In the third period, they didn`t take their second shot until nine minutes had expired.
In between, there were only a handful of good chances. The Hawks didn`t help themselves on the power play, going 0-for-4 to make them 0-for-16 over a five-game stretch.
On the other hand, the Hawks got a great performance from goalie Bob Sauve and snuffed out 59 seconds of a five-on-three Flyer power play, the fifth straight time they`ve survived a two-man disadvantage.
Philadelphia, which has allowed fewer goals than any team in the National Hockey League, has had its own problems connecting in recent games.
”We were playing against (Hall of Famer) Glenn Hall,” Keenan said of Sauve`s effort. ”We were fortunate to get a point.”
The Flyers` Mark Howe opened the scoring at 8:03 of the first period when he grabbed the puck at center ice and let fly with a quick shot from the left faceoff circle.
Sutter tied the score at 12:29, neatly tipping in Tom Lysiak`s lofted pass in front of the Flyer net.
Savard then put the Hawks ahead at 16:18 when he smashed home Steve Larmer`s feed from about 15 feet out to the left of goalie Bob Froese, who had no chance.
The teams went 36:41 before Ilkka Sinisalo got the game`s only power-play goal. Sauve had made a great stop on Pelle Eklund`s short shot, but the Hawks couldn`t clear the puck.
”This was a pretty tough point,” said Sauve. ”We deserved something from this, though.”
