THAT’ S HOW PUCK BOUNCE S
Hawks blow 2- 0 lead, lose in overtime to fall into 3- 0 hole in series
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A frozen slab of rubber doesn’t always do what you expect. Especially in a rink rimmed by boards of varying degrees of bounciness and dotted with doors and rivets and glass separated by metal stanchions every few feet.
On Monday, there were two notably strange bounces during the course of a wild Game 3 between the Blackhawks and Nashville Predators. Neither one worked out for the Hawks in a crushing 3- 2 overtime loss.
Kevin Fiala, after twice just missing on potential winners, ended the game at 16: 44 of overtime to put the Hawks in a huge 3- 0 hole.
Early in the game, Johnny Oduya’s short- handed clear from his own zone caromed off the boards and headed straight toward the Predators’ net — with Pekka Rinne standing behind it in anticipation of the puck rimming around the boards. In total desperation, Rinne dived back toward the crease and stuck his stick out, hoping the bouncing puck wouldn’t skip over or under it and into the net. It didn’t, and Rinne made the save of the day on a shot that didn’t even go down as an official shot on goal.
In the third period, Viktor Arvidsson’s shot sailed over the goal and hit the glass above the end boards. The puck bounced straight back over the net and fell into the crease, completely unbeknown to Hawks goalie Corey Crawford, and Filip Forsberg smacked in the loose puck to trigger the Predators’ comeback from a 2- 0 third- period deficit — he scored again at 14: 08 of the third — and send the game to overtime.
It was a remarkable turn of events in a game that, for a fleeting moment, appeared to change the momentum of the series back in the Hawks’ favor. Trailing the series 2- 0 and without a single goal, the Hawks were disappointed but defiant entering the game, insistent that they eventuallywould break through Rinne and the Predators’ defense and that, once they did, the floodgates would open.
Sixty- five seconds into the second period, Dennis Rasmussen, bumped up to the third line in a revamped lineup, scored the Hawks’ first goal of the playoffs. The tally seemed to change the complexion of the series.
The reeling Hawks, who went 11 minutes without a shot on goal in the first period, suddenly seized momentum. A raucous Bridgestone Arena, screaming at earsplitting levels before the game and during the first period, suddenly fell silent. And a disastrous series for the Hawks, who were left embarrassed and furious by their putrid Game 2 performance, suddenly seemed well within reach.
Patrick Kane then ripped a wrist shot from the right circle past Rinne on a power play at 11: 15, unleashing a big right- handed, windmill fist pump in celebration of his 50th career playoff goal. The Hawks couldn’t have scripted it any better: a greasy goal by a depth scorer, then a star play from a star player.
But the Predators didn’t just roll over. Forsberg finally solved Crawford, who was sharp all game, with the help of the glass, then tied it on the rebound of a shot by Ryan Ellis. The Hawks challenged for goalie interference on the equalizer, with Crawford getting bumped while he was well out of the crease, but the goal stood.
The Hawks’ season was basically on the line in overtime, and Fiala came close to winning it twice. But he fired high on a wide- open shot in the slot, then was robbed by a kick stop by Crawford, his 45th save of the game. Both times, Fiala threw his head back and put his hands on his helmet in disbelief. But he ended up with the winner, mobbed by his teammates in the corner.