Chicago Blackhawks Force Game 6, Anaheim Ducks Tie Series 2-2

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Mary Chastain

The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in double overtime while the Anaheim Ducks tied their series with the Nashville Predators.

Defending Stanley Cup champions Chicago Blackhawks faced elimination in St. Louis, but goalie Corey Crawford came up strong with 43 saves. The Blackhawks took a 3-1 lead into the third after Artemi Panarin scored his second goal of the playoffs with one second left in the second.

But horrible turnovers in the neutral zone and slop play led to the Blues tying it up and forcing overtime.

It only took three minutes into the second overtime for Patrick Kane, who became the first American to win the NHL scoring title in the regular season, to score the game winner.

“I tried to make a move around a guy who was maybe trying to block my shot,” explained Kane. “Made a move, saw the puck and tried to get one on net there. Fortunately enough it kind of squeaked out to the other side.”

Kane has had many opportunities against Blues goalie Brian Elliott, but has not pushed the puck past him.

The series returns to Chicago for Game 6 on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern.

The Nashville Predators took a 2-0 series lead back home against the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks took Game 3 and took advantage of the poor Predators defense to grab Game 4.

Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf started things off for them with his second playoff goal only a minute into the second period. Predators forward Mike Fisher tied it up in the second, but the Ducks took a 3-1 lead when forward Nate Thompson scored.

Then more failures to clear the puck gave Jamie McGinn an opportunity to score on a pass from Chris Stewart.

“We were just thinking stay calm, stay the course,” said Thompson. “They were at home. They’re going to make a push. They did that. They scored a big goal. We just kept our composure. We knew that we had to stick with it and push back, and we did that. We had some timely goals.”

Andrew Cogliano gave the Ducks a 4-1 lead with four minutes left in the period.

The series heads back to Anaheim for Game 5 on Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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