Antoine Vermette made good on his return to the lineup and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Anaheim Ducks in double-overtime, 5-4, to tie the Western Conference Final at two games apiece.
After a disappointing Game 3 that resulted in the Ducks taking a 2-1 series lead, the Blackhawks looked to get off to a fast start Saturday night. Joel Quenneville’s questionable scratching of Teuvo Teravainen and Vermette didn’t work two nights prior, and the Blackhawks looked to regain their Game 2 form by scratching Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom instead.
The Blackhawks looked fast and hungry at the start of the first. They did a great job keeping the puck in the Ducks’ zone and created strong opportunity after strong opportunity. Both teams had several fantastic opportunities and both goaltenders looked fantastic. The first goal of the game went Brandon Saad on a backhanded breakaway with less than a minute left in the first period.
The Blackhawks came out in the second and continued to play fast while both teams traded solid scoring chances. The Ducks looked a lot better defensively and were able to ramp up their forecheck. A Kyle Palmieri shot that went in off of Emerson Etem’s butt tied the game for the Ducks with 1:46 left in the second after a power play in which Corey Crawford made several fantastic saves. After trailing 20-10 in shots midway through the second, the Ducks were able to get to improve as the period went on and make it 20-19 by the end of the second.
Jonathan Toews scored three minutes into the third to put the Blackhawks ahead 2-1. This goal came after a fantastic kick-pass by Saad to set up a Marian Hossa shot. Brent Seabrook followed up with a goal off of a shot in the slot off of a rebound by Frederik Andersen.
And then disaster struck. Ryan Kesler, Matt Beleskey, and Corey Perry all scored within 37 seconds of each other after the Seabrook goal to take a 4-3 lead with 10 minutes left to go in the third. These three goals stunned the Blackhawks and forced them to use their timeout.
After Jakob Silfverberg was sent to the box for holding, Patrick Kane ended the power play right away with a gigantic goal to tie things up at four apiece. The Blackhawks had several more opportunities throughout the rest of the period, including a Bryan Bickell shot that hit the the post and went out of play, but couldn’t capitalize in regulation.
For much of the first overtime, the Ducks dominated. At one point, they led the Blackhawks 8-0 in shots. Ten minutes into the first overtime, the Blackhawks went onto the power play after Andrew Shaw drew a penalty. After an incredible opportunity by Shaw that hit the crossbar, the Ducks were able to kill the penalty. With around four minutes left in the first overtime, Andersen stifled a breakaway by Sharp after a beautiful pass by Teravainen.
In the second overtime, Vermette finally scored his first Chicago playoff goal, putting one past Andersen to end it. It was a perfect way to end a crazy game and now the series is tied, 2-2, with things heading back to Anaheim for Game 5 on Monday night.