CHICAGO, Ill – Chicago, Ill. – The Chicago Blackhawks scored in overtime to bring them within one of tying the Western Conference Final series against the Detroit Red Wings. The score was knotted up at three goals a piece going into the extra stanza. Everyone on the game-winning shift contributed on the goal. Chicago’s Dustin Byfuglien menaced Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood as the defensemen set up the play in front of him. Matt Walker, who has been a difference-maker when he plays, took a pass and ripped it towards the next as it ping-ponged around to Patrick Sharp who swept it in on the Detroit goal.
The Detroit Red Wings started the game without Pavel Datsyuk as he was a scratch from the lineup due to a foot injury. Perhaps the injury has been a problem as his numbers for the playoffs have been real low for the league’s MVP finalist. Detroit weren’t the only ones to suffer injuries as the game progressed.
The first scoring wave of the game belonged to the Blackhawks as they scored the first three goals of the game.
The first goal was scored from the point on a power play as Brent Seabrook fired a shot with traffic in front. It turned out Sharp would start what he finished with the first goal of the game at the 8:45 mark. There was great movement of the puck with sharp passing that split the Red Wings defense wide to allow for the goal. This was the third game in a row that the Blackhawks had scored the first goal of the game in this series.
Just a little over a minute later Andrew Ladd skated in from the far circle and fired the shot on net, Osgood stopped the puck from going in but rebounded right back to Ladd, who followed up with a goal.
With seven minutes left in the period the Blackhawks suffered a major blow. As team scoring leader Martin Havlat was trying to retrieve the puck, he put his head down for a brief second to get control of the puck, but in that instance he was hit hard by Niklas Kronwall and fell to the ice and lay motionless for sometime with his eyes glazed open. At post time it is not know what the severity of his injury might be. Chicago closed the period outshooting Detroit 11-6.
chicago got out of the gate quickly as the Blackhawks scored 45 seconds into the second period. Defenseman Duncan Keith stayed at the blue line and retrieved the puck at the far boards. He fired the shot in and Sammy Pahlsson deflected the puck enough for the five-hole score on Osgood.
The experience and the maturity of the Detroit Red Wings showed as they didn’t give up even with a three goal deficit. Detroit kept up on their barrage of shots on Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. Late in the second period, with the man advantage, up and down passing enabled the Red Wings to tally their first goal as Niklas Lidstrom from the point saw his wicked shot get defected by a Chicago skate into the net at the 14:3 8 mark.
Brian Rafalski scored is third goal of the playoffs on a wrister to bring his Red Wings within one. In addition Detroit scored the one to tie the game up with 59 seconds left in the second. Tomas Holmstrom did what he does best and was up close right in Khabibulin’s face enabling a huge screen that allowed Jonathan Ericsson to get the puck in easily. This gave the Detroit Red Wing three goals in under five minutes.
The Chicago faithful saw another change going into the third as the period saw Khabibulin replaced by Cristobal Huet who hasn’t played a game in six weeks. Emergency backup Corey Crawford was on the bench and it was later known that Khabibulin was out with a lower body injury and is listed day-to-day.
The third period saw no scoring at all. Both teams played the boards for most of the period with very minimal net presence and high defense. Osgood stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced as the Chicago tandem of Khabibulin and Huet went 27 of 30 with Huet stopping all six that he faced.
This series is starting to mimic the season series between these two storied teams where each team won two games a piece but the other two ended up as overtime games with Detroit winning. How will we know how this ends up? Apparently it is going to be one game at a time with the next continuing in Chicago at the United Center for Game Four on Sunday afternoon.
Contact matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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