Game 3 NHL Western Conference Finals

Detroit Red Wings vs Chicago Blackhawks: Chicago wins 4-3 (Detroit leads series 2-1)

It took an extra minute for the Blackhawks to win a game that should've ended in the second period. Instead, Detroit scored 3 goals in the final 5 minutes of the second period to force an overtime, and a miraculous no-look backhand pass by Matt Walker to Patrick Sharp resulted in probably the easiest goal the Blackhawks will have against the Red Wings this series to pump a little bit of life back into Chicago. Both teams were shorthanded, as Pavel Datsyuk was scratched and Nicklas Kronwall was tossed early in the first period for a game misconduct on Martin Havlat, which apparantly injured him as he never returned to the ice. Nikolai Khabibulin was pulled in between the second and third periods after the 3 goal barrage by Detroit, but he didn't return to the bench. Although Chicago is now back in the series, they must win game 4 at home unless they want to give Detroit a chance to eliminate them in game 5 in Hockeytown. And although the Blackhawk penalty kill was good for the most part, it was the third power play that the Red Wings scored on after receiving three straight in a span of 8 minutes, and Detroit almost took the giant momentum swing into a comeback from a 0-3 deficit. Lots of things to work on for the Blackhawks, who still don't have much of an advantage over the Red Wings in this series.

After scoring 3 early goals, including two from power plays (one on the power play and one right after the penalty ended), the Blackhawks were outshot 18-8 in the second period as the Red Wings dominated the final 10 minutes to tie the game up. But a big part of that was 3 straight penalties the Blackhawks took, and it seemed they got kind of lazy in paying attention to the details of the game with a 3 goal lead. Good job by the Blackhawks to put Detroit in a huge hole and hang on to score the overtime winner, but there is no way Chicago can give the Red Wings another chance like that if they hope to tie the series in game 4. And what was up with Cristobal Huet getting his first playoff action since last year? Khabibulin did allow 3 goals in 4 minutes, but none of those 3 goals were his fault. Two were crazy deflections into the corner of the net and one was a perfect screen by Tomas Holmstrom. Maybe it was just a wake-up call move by the coach, but Khabibulin not returning from the locker room in between periods suggests either his team has lost faith in him or there is some sort of injury on the gold medalist goaltender.