Ducks at Blackhawks
Two days after stealing home-ice advantage - and evening the series - with a marathon triple-overtime victory, the Chicago Blackhawks look to put it to good use when they host the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Thursday. Chicago jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Tuesday before squandering it, needing a stellar performance from Corey Crawford (60 saves) and a goal by Marcus Kruger at 16:12 of the third overtime to avoid falling into an 0-2 series hole.
An incredible effort by Andrew Shaw in the second extra session nearly gave the Blackhawks the victory, but his tally correctly was disallowed as he took a page out of the playbook of Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire and deliberately head-butted the puck past Frederik Andersen. The Anaheim netminder played nearly as well as Crawford, turning aside 53 shots, and Andrew Cogliano began the Ducks' comeback before Corey Perry continued his trend of scoring a goal in alternate games by knotting the contest late in the second period. Anaheim's third-ranked power play was unable to cash in, failing on five opportunities to drop to 0-for-6 in the series as the Ducks suffered their first home loss of the postseason (6-1). Anaheim was held to fewer than three goals for just the second time in this year's playoffs, with the first being a 2-1 triumph over Winnipeg in Game 2 of their first-round matchup.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, CBC, TVA
ABOUT THE DUCKS: Perry began the postseason with a two-goal effort against the Jets and has scored in every second game since. He netted his eighth of the playoffs on Tuesday, putting him among the league leaders in both tallies and points (16). Captain Ryan Getzlaf tops all players in assists this postseason as he notched his 12th on Perry's goal in Game 2.
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS: Shaw, who opened the scoring Tuesday 2:16 into the contest with the first of his team's two power-play goals and had several other good chances, knew his soccer-style goal was in violation of league rule 78.5 - which states a tally would be disallowed "when the puck has been directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player other than with a stick." Regardless, the 23-year-old would have liked to have seen the goal stand. "I understand (the rule), but I think if anyone can ever pull that off, it should still be a goal," Shaw said. "I mean, at that point, you react in the moment and try to get it in."
OVERTIME
1. Thanks to Tuesday's win in the longest playoff game in franchise history, the Blackhawks are the only team yet to lose at home this postseason (5-0).
2. Chicago's Duncan Keith led all players with 49:51 of ice time on Tuesday while fellow D Kyle Cumiskey made his first playoff appearance since 2010 with Colorado and saw 18:34 of action.
3. Although the teams combined for 118 shots in Game 2, Chicago had four players and Anaheim three who did not register at least one. Ducks C Nate Thompson was the only forward on either team to be shut out.