Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final carries some weight for the team that wins the contest. In history, a huge majority of teams that win Game 3 when the series is tied go on to win the big prize of the two-month tournament. With the series shifting back to the United Center for the third contest of the best-of-seven, the Blackhawks looked to get the matchups they wanted to try and keep home ice advantage.
The first few minutes were much of the same as the first two games, as the Lightning carried the early portion of play. They were rewarded on their fourth shot with just over five minutes into the game, with Victor Hedman firing a bomb pass from his own trapezoid to Ryan Callahan, who sniped it from the right faceoff circle off the crossbar and into the bottom of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Shortly after the goal however, the Hawks kept coming. With Teuvo Teravainen and Marian Hossa missing two empty nets in a short span, they eventually found the twine, as Brad Richards let a shot go from the point with just over five minutes and change left in the first stanza that found its way through a screen and deflection off of Ben Bishop. As the puck came to the Tampa goaltender, he seemed to track it into his glove and simply missed the catch, and with that the game was tied with Richards scoring his third of the postseason. The game stayed tied until the end of the period with the Hawks outshooting the Lightning 19-7.
The Tampa team would respond and regain the play, netting the first eight of nine shots in the first five minutes of play in the second stanza. Each team would trade chances throughout the second, with the Blackhawks failing on a powerplay nearly mid-way through. Their other half of special teams needed to come up big however later in the period, as Tampa Bay had a golden opportunity with a 5-on-3 powerplay with under five minutes left. The Blackhawks smothered the chance and it went by the wayside. The period would close with Tampa nearly flipping the shots from the first at a 17-7 mark. The game was set up for a classic finish as the the final period of regulation loomed.
The third period began with each team trading chances as was the common occurrence throughout the game. The Hawks would pounce on theirs, with the Hawks playing a little tic tac toe with Jonathan Toews, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Duncan Keith, and Hossa touching the puck before the latter dished it to Brandon Saad in the slot for a one-time snipe to give Chicago a 2-1 lead. This lead would last exactly 13 seconds, as the Lightning pushed back, much like the Blackhawks did in Game 2. Nikita Kucherov threw a nice power move to the net and fellow triplet Ondrej Palat banged the loose puck home to tie the game and take the wind out of the sails at the Madhouse. All of this occurred not even five minutes into the period. Tampa Bay weathered the Chicago storm and vice versa, with Steven Stamkos hitting the crossbar a few minutes later. Corey Crawford held the Chicago fort while Ben Bishop, appearing to battle his unknown injury that lingered from Game 2, shut down things in the Tampa zone as Chicago fired more attempts looking to go ahead.
However, the visitors were the ones that went ahead. With just over three minutes to play, Hedman skated through center and into the Chicago zone, buying enough time for Cedric Paquette to bounce off of his man Kyle Cumiskey and redirect his pass in front past Corey Crawford to give Tampa a 3-2 lead. With the seconds ticking down and Crawford at the bench, Jon Cooper’s group sacrificed their bodies to give their wounded tender a few breaks, and when pucks got through, Bishop was there to turn them aside.
The clock ran out on Toews trying to feed a pass in front to Patrick Kane, and Tampa had the victory and home ice advantage.
The young “team of the future” had a win in the present at the Madhouse, just the second loss for the home team this postseason, winding down the win requirement to just two more victories.
The Cup for Tampa Bay is surely half full, but they have to remember, the opponents are going for their third Cup in six years and will not go down quietly. If the first three games of the series have taught us anything, it’s that each game is up for grabs and serves as a reassuring inkling that the series will get that much tighter.
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