CHICAGO, Ill. — It only took the Chicago Blackhawks twelve seconds of overtime to extinguish the Calgary Flames in the first game of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. The difference in this game was a healthy Martin Havlat who tallied the final two goals to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead in the series. The game was going to be a battle of a playoff-worn team in the Calgary Flames against the youth and speed of the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flames have one newcomer to the playoff ranks in Olli Jokinen who has finally played in his first postseason postseason game after putting up 799 regular season games in his career. As for the Blackhawks, close to half their team has never played in a Stanley Cup playoff contest. Where the Blackhawks nervous going into their first big game? Returning to his first game from two week due to injury, right winger Patrick Sharp said not too much, as he noted that playing in a big game like the Winter Classic this year helped take off some of the nervous edge off of the players. As the game started you could see a slight nervousness with the Blackhawks. They couldn’t get into the lane between the circles or cause much traffic in front of20Calgary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff. Calgary did well in playing Chicago at the boards and keeping the game physical. After a great save by the Blackhawks as a player batted away a flying puck that flew behind Nikolai Khabibulin, the team couldn’t keep the puck in their attack zone. Just as quickly as the team made that great save, the Flames David Moss took a rebound and got in tight between two defenders and Khabibulin and was able to flick the puck in on the far side off the net for the first score of the game. Helpers went to Craig Conroy and Curtis Glencross. The period ended with the Flames dominating on the shots as they doubled up on the Blackhawks five. But you could sense the tide starting to shift as Chicago’s special teams got their first big test trying to kill a four minute minor penalty that was given when their young team captain Jonathan Toews was caught with a high-stick. Going into the second they had 30 seconds left on the penalty and killed it off. The lanes were finally opening for Chicago and the players were finally able to get in deep and in front of Kiprusoff. You know it is something when your defensemen takes a majority of the shots and Cam Barker made one of those count. Barker teed off a shot towards the net from the slot but it was quickly blocked but the ensuing rebound found Barker ag ain at the top of the far circle. Barker waited ever so slightly for the screen and fired it through on Kiprusoff’s glove side to knot the score up at one a piece. The shots were fairly even in the period going into the final frame. Calgary brought the house of Madison Street back down to earth as the Chicago was caught deep and took the puck in on a two-on-one breakaway as Daymond Langkow took a feeder pass from Todd Bertuzzi in to the red dot with Michael Cammalleri taking a pass from the wing and wristed one in to put the Flames up at the 3:54 mark. The game was now late into the third. Havlat sliced through towards the net on a pass from Barker, he took the initial shot only to have it rebound back to him where he placed it in to tie up the game and bring the United Center crowd up to the excitement of years past. Overtime was inevitable and that is we went. The crowd was still buzzing as the extra period started but the Blackhawks probably knew that it was a school night and didn’t want to the folks in the stands to come down to a lull from and long extended game. So it will probably take longer to describe the play than it actually took to score the goal. So here we go, center Dave Bolland took the puck in into the far circle, paused and looked behind him and saw Havlat in the slot20behind him. Havlat took the puck and saw the play develop in front of him with bodies rushing up to the net. He blasted the shot home at the twelve second mark to give the Blackhawks the win in their first playoff game in seven years. “There is a lot of pressure on the home team playing that first playoff game,” said Chicago Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville, “you’re expected to win. It’s not an easy game to play. We held serve, but at the same time we expect a tougher game and a tougher series as we get deeper.” Kiprusoff faced 28 shots letting in three while Khabibulin took 25 letting in two. Stars of the game: Barker was the third star of the game with a goal and an assist leading the team with six shots. Cammalleri was the second start with the breakaway second goal, and Martin Havlat was the first start with his 15 and 16 career playoff goals, the last of which was the game-winner.
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