Blackhawks bring home the Stanley Cup

From Philadelphia

Patrick Kane sprinted from one end of the ice to the other with fists pumping but more hope than conviction, believing he had scored the goal that won the Stanley Cup for the Chicago Blackhawks but not entirely sure because of the puzzled silence surrounding him.

“I tried to sell the celebration a bit,” said Kane, whose shot from deep on the left side went under Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton and got stuck under the padding in the net.

“Everyone came down and I think some guys were still kind of a little iffy to see if the puck was in the net.”

The play was reviewed, the goal was posted on the scoreboard and the Blackhawks had a 4-3 overtime victory Wednesday that ended the final in six games and ended the club’s 49-year Stanley Cup drought.

“It’s pretty surreal right now, for sure,” Kane said after joining his teammates on the ice at the Wachovia Center for a teary and happy celebration.

It was a strange ending to a strange series, one that never seemed to have direction until Blackhawks Coach Joel Quenneville broke up his top line of Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien in Game 5 and put each onto different lines.

Freed from the clutches of Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger, who had frustrated the trio in the first four games, Byfuglien scored his first goal of the series in Game 5 and scored again in Game 6, a power-play goal on the rebound of a shot by Toews at 16:49 of the first period.

Kane, grafted onto a line with Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd and better able to capitalize on his speed, assisted on the redirection by Ladd at 17:43 of the second period that put Chicago ahead, 3-2.

Though the never-say-die Flyers pulled even with 3:59 left in the third period on Scott Hartnell’s tip-in of Ville Leino’s backhand pass into the slot, Kane quashed their comeback hopes 4:06 into overtime when he took a pass from defenseman Brian Campbell and took a 30-foot wrist shot.

Kane threw off his gloves and began doing his celebration skate, though for a few seconds it was a solo.

“He sold it pretty good if the puck didn’t go in,” said Toews, who won the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player in postseason play and, at 22, the second-youngest captain ever to win the Cup.

“But it was kind of an awkward celebration. We didn’t know what to do.”

They got the hang of this celebration thing pretty quickly. Owner Rocky Wirtz, who rescued the franchise from oblivion after taking over from his late father, Bill, proudly lifted the Cup above his head at center ice. Kris Versteeg hugged everyone in sight.

Players posed for pictures with their kids or the parents who had driven them to countless early-morning practices at cold hockey rinks.

They also celebrated with class. Toews received the Cup from a roundly booed Commissioner Gary Bettman but flouted the usual protocol of passing the trophy to the alternate captains. Instead he gave it to Marian Hossa, who was playing in his third straight Cup final but his first on the winning side.

“It feels pretty heavy, actually. I put it on my shoulder,” Hossa said. “What a relief. I’m so happy to finally do this.”

The Flyers had repeatedly overcome adversity this season and were sure they could do it again. A coaching change in December, from John Stevens to Peter Laviolette, didn’t click immediately but eventually got them playing an aggressive, uptempo game.

They lost key players to injuries and fell behind Boston, 0-3, in their second-round playoff series before rallying.

They finally ran out of comebacks Wednesday.

“It hurts a lot,” said Flyers captain Mike Richards, who had only one goal in a series that produced 47 — 25 by Chicago and 22 by Philadelphia — and was the highest-scoring Cup final since 1980.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through.”

And the most pleasant for the Blackhawks. Salary-cap constraints and free agency will soon change their roster but they will always have this memory — and their names on the Cup.

“I don’t have to dream anymore about this,” Campbell said. “It’s a reality now.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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