Blackhawks: 3 Takeaways from Game 3 against Oilers

Coming off of an absolutely horrendous performance in the third period of Monday night’s Game 2 defeat, the Blackhawks were looking bounce back in a big way on Wednesday.

After an impressive 6-4 victory in Game 1 and the constant uphill battle that Game 2’s defeat presented, Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers was sure to be a doozy for the Blackhawks. It certainly didn’t disappoint. Because of the best-of-five series format, the winner of Game 3 would only need to win one more matchup in order to advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Even though Edmonton is the host of the entire Western Conference portion of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Blackhawks finally got to have the opportunity to be the “home” team tonight. After suiting back up into the red sweaters and hearing another wonderful performance of the National Anthem by Jim Cornelison, Chicago was fired up and ready to roll for Game 3.

It ended up proving to be another closely fought battle. After having leads of 1-0 and 2-1, the Hawks ended up trailing 3-2 at the start of the final period. Rookie Matthew Highmore picked a great time to score his first-ever playoff goal to knot up the score with five minutes remaining. Then Captain Clutch delivered, as he has done many times in the past. Jonathan Toews was able to get enough of a piece of Slater Koekkoek‘s shot from the point to deflect the puck into the net with only 1:16 remaining. Chicago was then able to fend off the Oilers for the last minute to take a 2-1 series lead.

Here are three takeaways from tonight’s thrilling come-from-behind victory: