Chicago: Brent Seabrook scored on a booming slap shot one minute into the third overtime, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Tuesday night in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series.
Seabrook’s long drive beat a screened Pekka Rinne on the 100th shot of the longest game in Nashville history. Rookie Scott Darling made 50 saves for Chicago.
The Blackhawks grabbed a 3-1 series lead and can close out the Predators with a win in Nashville on Thursday night.
Colin Wilson and James Neal scored for Nashville, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period. Rinne finished with 45 stops. The first overtime featured a memorable duel between Rinne, who found some of the magic he had during Nashville’s strong start to the season, and Darling, who was making his second career postseason start.
Nicklas Backstrom scored 11:09 into overtime to lift Washington to victory, and even its first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders. Alex Ovechkin also scored and assisted on the decisive goal, which came off a face-off to the right of the Islanders net. Backstrom dug the puck out in the right corner and worked his way up the boards.
He snapped a shot near the blue line that went through a crowd and sneaked inside the far post.
Casey Cizikas scored for the Islanders as the series shifts to Washington for Game 5 on Thursday.
Petr Mrazek made 22 saves for his first postseason shutout, and Pavel Datsyuk, Riley Sheahan and Luke Glendening scored for Detroit in a victory over Tampa Bay that gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead in their playoff series.
The 23-year-old Mrazek was coach Mike Babcock’s choice to start in this series instead of Jimmy Howard, and the youngster has acquitted himself well in his postseason debut.
He made 44 saves in a 3-2 victory in the opener, and although he was pulled after two periods in a 5-1 loss the following game, Mrazek bounced back nicely at home.
After being outshot badly in the first two games at Tampa Bay, the Red Wings were able to contain the high-scoring Lightning on Tuesday in a tightly contested match-up.
