Frantic finish: Kane goal wins latest Blackhawks thriller
A 4-goal, third-period rally and frantic finish, capped by Patrick Kane's winner with 43 seconds to play.
Call it another normal night at the United Center for the Blackhawks.
Kane's second goal of the game in the final minute of regulation highlighted a wild-and-crazy third period Sunday night as the Hawks fought from behind to stun the Nashville Predators 5-4 and complete a sweep of the key weekend home-and-home series.
The Hawks trailed 2-1 going to the third, went ahead 4-2 on 2 goals by John Madden and another by Brian Campbell, only to have the Predators tie it with late goals 57 seconds apart.
"Finding a way to win, we've been pretty effective in a lot of ways," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We've had some amazing games here at home, some spectacular endings, and tonight was one of them as well.
"However we win, the bottom line is finding a way is something we can really take out of about your team and learn from it. I don't recall giving up a 2-goal lead late in any stretch here, and finding a way to win and circumvent it was pretty impressive."
The win not only pushed the first-place Hawks 8 points ahead of Nashville in the Central Division, it moved them past Washington for first place overall in the race for the President's Trophy with 55 points.
"It's not good enough," Madden said. "Over the last 10 or 11 years, I've seen a lot of teams go into the Christmas break in first place in their division and not make the playoffs.
"This league is too tight. We can never get enough points. We want first place, home-ice advantage. Those are all things we're thinking in our head and that's what our goals are."
Madden scored his first goal on a breakaway at 6:40 of the third period on a great pass from Andrew Ladd. Madden's second goal at 12:12 made it 3-2.
Campbell's power-play goal with 6:27 to play had the Hawks looking good, but Nashville got goals from Dan Hamhuis at 15:38 and Cody Franson at 16:35 to suck the air out of the building.
"It looked like we were in a pretty good spot there and all of a sudden it changed quickly and the picture was different," Quenneville said.
A great last-minute shift by the line of Jonathan Toews, Kane and Troy Brouwer paid off with a victory. Duncan Keith made a smart pass to Kane to the right of the net, but Kane's first shot was stopped by Predators goalie Dan Ellis.
Brouwer poked the rebound back to Kane, who didn't miss the second time under the crossbar.
"You shouldn't give up the lead there to make it 4-4, but we got the 2 points," Kane said. "Four points here and they get none; it distances ourselves a little bit, for sure."
Not letting the game get to overtime deprived the Predators of at least getting something out of the weekend.
"It was a huge 2 points and getting it done in regulation gets you a little more separation as well," Quenneville said.
"It would have been nice to get a point, but Kane is a good goal scorer and the puck seems to follow him," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "I felt the turning point in the game was Madden's goals."
<p class="factboxheadblack">Tim Sassone's game tracker</p> <p class="breakhead">Three stars</p> <p class="News"><b>1.</b> Patrick Kane, Hawks: Two goals, including the winner with 43 seconds to play, and an assist for the star winger.</p> <p class="News"><b>2.</b> John Madden, Hawks: His 2 goals in the third period brought the Hawks back from a 3-1 deficit.</p> <p class="News"><b>3.</b> Jonathan Toews, Hawks: Three more assists for the captain, who is looking more and more like a slam-dunk to make the Canadian Olympic team.</p> <p class="News"><b>See you next year:</b> Not only do the Hawks lead second-place Nashville by 8 points in the Central Division, their season series is over, the Hawks winning four of the six games.</p>