Blackhawks Fall To Flyers In Game Three Overtime Thriller
By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jun 3, 2010 3:35AM
Having won the first two games on their home ice, the Blackhawks' quest for the Stanley Cup moved to Philadelphia for Game Three. In a tightly contested game, the 'Hawks and Flyers required overtime to determine the winner Wednesday night and Philly eventually left the Wachovia Center ice as 4-3 winners, cutting the Blackhawks' series lead to 2-1. Each of the games have been decided by a single goal.
The Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by Danny Briere with about five minutes remaining in the opening period. The Blackhawks tied up the score early in the second period as Patrick Kane found Duncan Keith for a shot deflected by a Flyer over the glove of Michael Leighton. Midway through the second period, Philadelphia scored their second goal after an official video review determined that Scott Hartnell poked the puck past the line. Brent Sopel answered by firing a face off win in to knot the game at two goals apiece with two minutes left to play in the second period. Four minutes in to the third period, the Blackhawks took their first lead of the night when Patrick Kane's scored his first goal since the Vancouver series, a breakaway goal that gave the Hawks a brief 3-2 advantage before Philly came right back and scored 20 seconds later. A Ville Leino rebound shot evened thing up again a three goal apiece. That's where the score remained at the end of regulation.
And so we went to overtime, where Blackhawks fans had a collective heart attack about five minutes in when it looked like Philly scored the game winner, before an official review waved off the score. Replays clearly showed the puck toe the line but never cross. Only a minute later, before out heart rates even had a chance to recover from the previous scare, the Flyers' Claude Giroux took advantage of the Hawks shift change to score the game winning goal. No review was necessary on that one; Flyers win 4-3.
The teams face off again in Game Four on Friday at 7:00 p.m. (TV: Versus, Radio: WGN 720 AM) as the Blackhawks look to take a 3-1 lead in the series while Philly looks to hold home ice and tie up the series.
Previously:
Game One (Recap, In Quotes)
Game Two (Recap, In Quotes)