After a convincing game one win, the Sabres looked to take a 2-0 series lead back to Chicago...That they did. In one of the wildest Stanley Cup finals in history, the Sabres got exactly what they expected from the Blackhawks after being down 1-0.
While Henrik Zetterberg opened the game on a give and go from Anze Kopitar at 4:02 in the first, Chicago immediately struck back with a tie goal less than 30 seconds later, and the go-ahead about a minuted after the tie. Chicago throughly outplayed the Sabres in both the first and second period with shots 24-9; however, despite the unbalanced shots, the game was deadlocked at 3 after 2 periods.
JP Dumont opened the scoring in the 3rd period to take a 4-3 but red-hot Anze Kopitar tied it up on a deflected shot by Derrian Hatcher. Lehtinen took the lead a few minutes after to take the 5-4 lead. After a seesaw battle all night, the Blackhawks tied it up again as Anton Volchenkov joined an odd-man rush and finished a beautiful drop pass from Alexander Frolov.
Each team had multiple chances to take the lead in the 3rd period but it was only fitting to see this classic head to OT. After an extra 20 minutes of play wasn't enough, each team headed into the 2nd OT tied 5-5. With just 5:34 left in the 2nd overtime, Dennis Wideman took a backdoor pass from Sidney Crosby top shelf for the game winner.
One of the main stories tonight was not the numerous goal scorers, but rather the goaltending...and not the All-Star goalies Martin Brodeur and NIklas Backstrom, but rather Joshua Harding and Craig Anderson. Both backups entered the game in the middle of the third period with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Both played incredibly considering the circumstances. They combined for an amazing total of 24 of 25 saves as they played with the game on the line.
The Sabres now take a 2-0 lead into Chicago yet they remain very cautiously optimistic as they found themselves on the other end of 2-0 series lead just last week vs the New York Rangers. "All we did was win the games we were supposed to win. We still have a very long way to go- after the talk Coach Renney gave us, we realize that we need to treat tomorrow's game just like we were down 0-2. That's exactly how were going to play." Iginla replied.
Coach Renney adds, "I told them we need to treat game 3 like we did in the Eastern Finals, like it's a game 7. If you let down against a team like Chicago, you'll find yourself down in a series before you know it."
The Sabres are now on a 6 game winning streak and are aiming to take a commanding 3-0 series lead tomorrow.
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"With Sid on your team, anything is possible" - Mario lemieux
im not sure if this has ever happened.... cause im sure ive never seen it in all my years in FHL..
but martin brodeur was pulled in game 2.... for josh harding... usually the sim will make them finish the rest of the game... and harding made 13 for 13 saves.. yet it was Broduer got the win... so i wondered what happened in the overtime.. did brodeur come back to play? if so.. how is the option obtained.. or was it a sim error and the win should have gone to harding..
The sim has an automatic pull feature installed for when a goalie gives up 5 goals or more. I think it is completely sim error that Harding didn't get the win.
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"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
