Chicago's Troy Brouwer scored early in overtime to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks in their Western Conference showdown on Thursday evening. Brouwer, who also scored in regulation time, delivered a game-winning shot 1min 37secs into overtime after the Blackhawks had squandered a 3-0 lead.
"Towards the end of the third period, we were getting chances and we got some momentum," Brouwer said. "We really felt like we were going to win that game going into overtime." Dustin Byfuglien, Brouwer and Andrew Ladd had given the Central division leaders a 3-0 lead by 8:23 of the first period before the Sharks fought back. San Jose's Joe Pavelski scored midway through the first to cut the deficit to 3-1, and again late in the second to narrow the Hawks' lead to one.
Manny Malhotra forced the extra session with a tip-in at 4:56 in the third period. "The start was unacceptable," said the San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. "We're all going to talk about how hard we fought and that we worked our way back into the game. "But that start was unacceptable. The mistakes we made in the first five minutes of the game - that's not a characteristic of ours." Despite the shaky start, the Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabo-kov finished with 35 saves while Cristobal Huet had 34 stops for the Blackhawks, who moved within one point of San Jose for top spot in the overall NHL standings.
With the loss, the Sharks had their five-game winning streak ended. Next up on the road for Chicago is a trip to Carolina on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Thrashers completed a comeback of their own as they scored three times in the third period to come from 3-1 down to claim a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Jim Slater scored twice for the Thrashers, while Evander Kane chipped in with two assists.
Slater felt his side had shown great spirit in their comeback, saying: "This was a big win against a good team in an arena where we haven't been successful in the past. Philly is a tough place to play. It shows a lot of character to score three [goals] in the third." A lone goal from Martin Havlat proved to be enough for the Minnesota Wild to get the better of the Colorado Avalanche.
* With agencies
