Niemi gets it done in cruch time

At this juncture, 'Niemi' appears to be one of those arrhythmic surnames that don't lend themselves to being chanted by 22,000 at a time.

Then, too, Antti Niemi would be the first to suggest his first 60 minutes Saturday afternoon weren't exactly worthy of choral worship.

But when the rookie goaltender rejected Nashville's 5 power-play shots in the opening 3:28 of overtime at United Center - capped by a gut-shot save of David Legwand's shot from the slot - the fans tried their best to make "Knee-em-eee!" sound as natural as "Detroit sucks!"

Their chant needs work, but the Hawks' crucial Game 5 overtime win figures to give the faithful more chances to get it right this spring.

Niemi deflected postgame praise for his overtime effort like a future all-star.

"The team played special," Niemi said. "The penalty-killing ... we even had a chance to score. (The four-minute penalty kill) was not that long because they did an outstanding job there."

Niemi more than made up for his uneven regulation play when the Predators managed 4 goals in their first 13 shots.

Nashville opened the scoring with Legwand's wrister just 6:23 into the game as Nashville's Joel Ward screened Niemi much too easily.

"On the first goal, I was on the wrong side of the play," Niemi said. "I didn't even see the puck go in."

Nashville's J.P. Dumont beat Niemi less than a minute later with a slapshot that was such a sure goal that Dumont raised his stick in the air to celebrate ... only to drop it quickly when the puck clanged off the crossbar.

Niemi had little chance to stop Nashville's next 2 goals, but Martin Erat's go-ahead goal midway through the third simply beat him.

All of those goals were forgiven, though, after the way Niemi and his penalty killers stuffed Nashville during their 3 minutes and 56 seconds' worth of power play in the extra session.

Ten Hawks teamed up in overtime to kill off Marian Hossa's boarding penalty. John Madden and Niklas Hjalmarsson handled more than two minutes as they took three shifts apiece while Brent Seabrook's lone shift lasted 1:42.

"We were feeding off that big goal by 'Kaner,' " Madden said of Patrick Kane's game-tying goal with 13.6 seconds left in regulation. "We thought we'd go out there with three or four units, shorten the shifts and use some energy. Make some 200-foot clears and block some shots and we'll see what happens after that."

The Hawks played virtually flawlessly during the kill, though Nashville's Shea Weber fed Legwand in the slot for an open opportunity that he could have buried and changed the series completely.

"That was a tough one," Niemi said. "I was too deep there. He shot it right into the (Hawks) logo."

The fans reacted by chanting his name. Perhaps not for the last time.