Kane, Hossa lift Hawks from death's door to 3-2 series lead

There are improbable wins, and then there is what the Blackhawks were able to pull off Saturday afternoon at the United Center.

In a sequence of events as crazy as any seen in recent club history, the Hawks stunned the Nashville Predators 5-4 in overtime to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.

Not only did Patrick Kane score a game-tying, short-handed goal with 13.6 seconds left in regulation during a five-minute major penalty to Marian Hossa - it was Hossa getting the winner at 4:07 of overtime, just 11 seconds after exiting the penalty box.

"From death to the door opening," Kane said after the dramatic finish. "I'm still pumped up."

The Hawks needed a furious rally after blowing a 3-1 second-period lead.

"To win that game is an unbelievable feeling - Saturday afternoon on NBC, in Chicago; we have a 3-1 lead, kind of give it away 4-3, it looks like the game is over, we take a five-minute penalty then tie it up and then Hossa comes out of the box and wins it," Kane said. "It was just an awesome game to play in."

Hossa's goal was made possible by the Hawks' desperate penalty kill that lasted the opening 3:57 of overtime because of to Hossa's major for boarding Predators defenseman Dan Hamhuis with 1:03 to play in regulation.

Penalty killers John Madden, Dave Bolland, Brent Sopel, Niklas Hjamarsson, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and Jonathan Toews rose to the occasion with goalie Antti Niemi, who needed to make a point-blank save on David Legwand 3:28 in to keep the game moving along.

"It doesn't really get much more desperate than that," Madden said. "I mean, if they score it's over. Everybody did their job and Hoss came out of the box nice and fresh and got himself one.

"We just told ourselves just be desperate, don't get running around and keep shifts short. We had the long change so we had to get pucks all the way down if we were going to make a change."

Hossa said his five minutes in the penalty box felt like five hours.

"You don't to know what was going on in my mind," said Hossa, who faces a possible suspension for the hit from behind on Hamhuis. "First of all when I saw Patrick score that goal I was jumping around in the cage like a little kid.

"When the guys killed it was a relief and when I saw the puck come to me and I put it in it was an even bigger one."

Hossa had a wide-open net for a tap-in from the left side for his first goal of the series after a shot by Sopel was deflected in traffic in front.

The Hawks looked to have everything under control late in the second period, up 3-1 on goals by Andrew Ladd, Hjalmarsson and Tomas Kopecky. But a short-handed goal by Nashville's Joel Ward at 17:31 of the second changed the momentum.

When Nashville got 2 goals from Martin Erat in the first 12 minutes of the third period, the Hawks were back on their heels and only minutes away from facing an elimination game Monday.

"To be honest we've got to learn from what just transpired in the last 40 minutes of that hockey game," Madden said. "We had a comfortable 3-1 lead and we got a little lackadaisical, or comfortable in our situation. We stopped doing what we were doing in the first period-and-a-half."

If the Hawks can't get inspired for Game 6 by Saturday's turn of events, nothing is going to do it.

"Across the board I think the enthusiasm, the comeback and the whole thing tonight was pretty remarkable," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

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<h1>More Coverage</h1>

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<h2>Photo Galleries</h2>

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<li><a href="/story/?id=375899">Game 5 images</a></li>

<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Tim Sassone's game tracker</b></p>

<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Blackhawks 5, Predators 4</b> (OT)</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">Three stars</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">1. Patrick Kane, Hawks: Short-handed goal with 13.6 seconds to play sent the game to overtime.</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">2. Niklas Hjalmarsson, Hawks: Plus-3 with a goal and was one of the key penalty killers in OT.</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">3. Jonathan Toews: Hawks: Two assists, killed penalties and was 16-6 on faceoffs.</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">By the numbers</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">Nashville was 0-for-4 on the power play and is 0-for-21 for the series.</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">The quote</p>

<p class="factboxtext12col">"We had a chance to steal this game." - Predators coach Barry Trotz</p>

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