Ducks rebound for road victory

CHICAGO— If the Anaheim Ducks were feeling drained in the lead-up to Thursday’s Game 3 of the Western Conference final, nobody mentioned it to head coach Bruce Boudreau. And for good reason. “They all want to play,” Boudreau said.

“So they’re not going to say whether they’re tired or not.”

Play they did, and awfully well. Less than 48 hours after losing a tripleovertime epic to the Blackhawks in Game 2, the Ducks ground out a 2-1 victory with an impressive combination of disruptive checking and special-teams aplomb.

Indeed, the Ducks outhit the Blackhawks 45-27, blocked 27 shots to Chicago’s nine and triumphed in the special-teams battle, killing all five of Chicago’s power-play chances while scoring a power-play goal of their own.

In other words, the Ducks mucked it up sufficiently to stifle Chicago’s talented attack, holding the Blackhawks to a grand total of one shot on goal in some 9:18 of power-play time. In doing so they kept a sold out United Center relatively subdued and seized a 2-1 series lead heading into Saturday’s Game 4.

“It was a perfect road game for us,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said.

“Both teams were tired. You could tell. I think the pace wasn’t as high (as in Game 2). But I think it was a character win for us.”

Said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville: “We had them taking penalties and we didn’t make them pay.”

Certainly the Blackhawks, who outshot the Ducks 10-5 in a third-period flurry to try to tie the game, had their chances — albeit not all of them justly earned.

Early in the third period, for instance, Andrew Shaw’s head snapped back, and he crumpled to the ice like he had been hurt, a convincing enough display of anguish by the Chicago centreman that the Blackhawks were awarded a power play.

But the officials might not be pleased when they see the replay.

That high stick that sent Ryan Getzlaf to the penalty box and appeared to fell Shaw? Video evidence suggests it missed Shaw’s face altogether.

Perhaps it was karmically fitting, then, that the Blackhawks didn’t score on the ensuing man advantage — or any man advantage, including a four-minute double minor in the first period.

On a night when Shaw feigned injury, the Blackhawks found themselves a reasonable facsimile of distress.

History says that NHL teams with the home advantage that take a 2-1 series lead in the league semifinals have advanced to the Stanley Cup final 82 per cent of the time, according to whowins.com.

“The series isn’t over,” Cogliano said.

“This is going to be a battle right to the end. We know that. We expect that.”

Anaheim scored first on Thursday, Pat Maroon tipping in a power-play point shot by Hamphus Lindholm midway through the first period.

The Blackhawks tied it 1-1 with 57 seconds left in the opening frame on an unlikely goal.

Entering the Anaheim zone, Patrick Kane appeared to overskate the puck and stopped his forward thrust. Three Ducks converged, none of whom attended to the matter of separating Kane from the disc.

With Ducks Matt Belesky, Richard Rakall and Simon Depres failing to contain him, Kane re-gathered the disc and put on a spinning, no-look backhander past goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Depres made up for his part in that misplay soon enough. With 54 seconds left in the second period he rifled a one-timer from the right wing past Corey Crawford.

The goal stood up as the winner on a night you could have excused the players for occasionally appearing dead on their feet.

“I’m going to bed,” said Boudreau as he left the post-game press conference.

“I’m tuckered out.”