BLACKHAWKS MAKE SUCCESSFUL RETURN TO PLAYOFFS, NIP FLAMES IN OT

Making their first playoff appearance in seven years, the Chicago Blackhawks needed some overtime heroics from Martin Havlat to secure an opening game win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.  Havlat scored just :12 seconds in to the extra session to break a 2-2 tie as the Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead in the series with the 3-2 victory.  The win broke a four game postseason losing streak for the Blackhawks and gave them their fifth victory in five tries over the Flames this season.

The Flames got on the scoreboard first as David Moss lit the lamp at 8:38 of the opening period with assists to Craig Conroy and Curtis Glencross.  They’d maintain a 1-0 lead until the 13:17 mark of the second period when Chicago’s Cam Barker scored the equalizer set up by Jonathan Toews and Matt Walker.  Calgary would regain the advantage early in the third period on Michael Cammalleri’s score from Daymond Langkow and Todd Bertuzzi.  The Martin Havlat would take over the game for the Blackhawks, beginning with the tying goal at 14:27 assisted by Cam Barker.  His second goal of the game would be the OT game winner—tying the record for third fastest OT goal in NHL playoff history—assisted by Dave Bolland. 

After the game, Havlat—who has plenty of playoff experience from his time in Ottawa—dismissed the importance of his individual heroics to focus on the team:

"It doesn't matter who scored the goal. We got the first game the hard way. I know [Andrew] Ladd was in front. I took the pass from [Dave] Bolland and went to the net. We were patient, sticking to the plan until the end. There wasn't planning going into overtime. I was shooting to score a goal."

Winning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin begged to differ with Havlat’s deference to team and attempt to downplay his significance in the victory:

“Havlat has scored a lot of big goals for us this year. Tonight he put us on his back."

Flames’ coach Mike Keenen suggested that there might have been interference on the play—while diplomatically not implicating the officials of any error in judgment:

"I believe it was Ladd who did not try to stop his movement toward the net and that's goaltender interference. However, the officials saw it different or didn't make the call because of the excitement of overtime."

Despite the loss, Keenen was pleased with his team’s effort during the first two periods:

"We established a pretty good road game to start with, but we couldn't sustain it in the third period when it was most necessary. And to win on the road, you have to be able to push back when there is a momentum. You look after the details and stay assertive and stay forceful in terms of your defensive posture and not get on your heels a little bit, which I think we did."

The series resumes on Saturday at the United Center in Chicago before the two teams head to Western Canada for games 3 and 4 on Monday and Wednesday.