Big Buff Scores Overtime Winner

CHICAGO, Ill. – Tonight’s Game Three of the Western Conference Finals was big in many ways. It was a must win for the San Jose Sharks who come in trailing two games to none. But it was “Big Buff”, Blackhawks Left Wing Dustin Byfuglien who scored with 7:36 left in the overtime period to give Chicago a three games-to-none lead in the series where they are one game away from going to the Stanley Cup Finals.
 
Things started out pretty good for the San Jose Sharks very early in the game. At the 1:51 mark of the first forward Joe Pavelski got one in on Antti Niemi but upon further review the call was reversed on the replay as of a result of a kicking motion. With the reversal, would this have an affect on either team? Well one thing that it did do was to bring the United Center crowd back alive to keep their team in the game. But would it bring San Jose down in that they can’t get any breaks with this Blackhawks team.
 
With nothing else happening in the first, the second was consisted of a set of matching goals. Not worse for the wear from the take-back goal, the Sharks had almost a minute and a half with the two-man advantage on the ‘Hawks. Just as the first penalty was winding down, left wing Patrick Marleau swept in a rebound shot by Pavelski to give the Sharks the 1-0 lead at 3:58 into the first.
 
Three minutes later it was the ‘Hawks with the man advantage. Captain Jonathan Toews spotted winger Patrick Sharp slipping in on the other side of Evgeni Nabokov where he passed the puck across in front of the crease for the snap shot in to tie the score. The power play was the result of an undisciplined slashing penalty from rookie center Logan Couture.
 
The Blackhawks Dave Bolland had a huge task in this series, and that was to contain the Sharks big Joe Thornton. He has done a great job a doing that where Thornton has only one point for a plus/minus -3 on only 9 shots in the series. Bolland got his team the lead in regulation with a nose to the grind play. Defenseman Dan Boyle tried to fire a shot in from the blue line but it was blocked to Bolland by Toews. The ensuing breakaway left him untouched as he made a deke on Nabokov to get the puck in on the glove side.
 
But San Jose was persistent in improving their game on the ‘Hawks as it was Marleau, Thornton, and Dany Heatley converging in on Niemi literally surrounding him like a pool of sharks. After a few battered shots, Marleau scored again to knot the game at two. Marleau has been big score two goals in each of the last two games.
 
In the overtime, the Blackhawks kept the puck alive in there offensive zone. The support that the showed on the game-winning shift. Defenseman Brian Campbell kept the puck in from the blue line dumping it to the area behind the net. Bolland swept the puck out in front to the slot where Byfuglien was waiting for the shot on in. Nabokov stood tall in his net and seemed to lose track of it behind him and by the time he realized that the puck was in front of him it was too late where he didn’t even react.
 
The game started with great back and forth play, with plenty of opportunities to score for both teams. Chicago started out more dominant in the neutral and offensive zones where San Jose just couldn’t bring the puck on deep to make a play happen. There wasn’t much passing going on to get the puck in close to Niemi. The only time the surrounded the net or even came close was on their scoring plays.  
 
Chicago has done a pretty good job with the San Jose first line but just when the Sharks showed some life in getting back into the series, something happens to shoot them down. San Jose’s shots on goal per period increased as the game went on as Chicago’s actually went down. Nabokov faced 38 shots, stopping 35 as winner Niemi shutdown 44 of the 46 he faced. Throughout the game, you saw the focus that you don’t see much in rookie netminders. He had great sight of the puck and followed it course as it approached.
 
The skew in the shot can be attributed to the penalties that the Blackhawks were called for. They had six compared to the Sharks two. But this shows you how good a player like Niemi is when he faces so many shots for a win.
 
With his first assist in the game, Jonathan Toews surpassed the great Stan Mikita for the franchise record for consecutive games with a point at 12. With a goal tonight by Dustin Byfuglien and Patrick Sharp, the two are now tied with Toews and Patrick Kane for the team lead in goals at seven a piece. Joe Pavelski leads the Sharks with nine goals but has yet to get one in this series. Patrick Marleau has seven with four coming in the last two games.
 
Three Stars of the Game:
Third Star: Patrick Marleau ( San Jose) with two goals
Second Star: Jonathan Toews ( Chicago) with two assists
First Star: Dustin Byfuglien ( Chicago) with the game-winners.
 
We all know that the Chicago Blackhawks have an almost spotless record on the road in these playoffs but at home they were 3-3 going into tonight’s game. So to change things up in their routine, the team checked themselves in to a downtown hotel after the morning skates to get a feel of being on the road with no distractions. Well it seemed to have worked in this game.
 
The San Jose Sharks will try to climb the high mountain as it is now do-or-die for them as the two teams meet on Sunday afternoon back at the United Center for Game Four.
 
Western Conference Finals
W1 San Jose Sharks vs. W2 Chicago Blackhawks
Series N
Chicago Leads Series 0-0
 
Sunday, May 16 Chicago Blackhawks 2 at San Jose Sharks 1
Tuesday, May 18 Chicago Blackhawks 4 at San Jose Sharks 2
Friday, May 21 San Jose Sharks 2 at Chicago Blackhawks 3 OT
Sunday, May 23 San Jose Sharks at Chicago Blackhawks, 2:00pm
*Tuesday, May 25 Chicago Blackhawks at San Jose Sharks, 8:00pm
*Thursday, May 27 San Jose Sharks at Chicago Blackhawks, 7:00pm
*Saturday, May 29 Chicago Blackhawks at San Jose Sharks, 7:00pm
 
* if necessary, All times Central Daylight Time
 
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com