The Blackhawks rose from the dead,got to overtime and somehow snatched one away from the Nashville Predators 5-4. Marian Hossa,fresh from serving a major penalty tipped in a Brent Sopel; pass at 4:07 to give his team a three games to two lead in the best of seven series.Nashville jumped ahead at 6:23 when David Legwand scored past a screened Antti Niemi who had his vision blocked by Joel Ward. The Hawks got a pair before the first period ended, first when Andrew Ladd put a rebound of a Brent Seabrook shot past Pekka Rinne at 9:57. The Hawks grabbed the lead at 14:53 when Niklas Hjalmarsson beat Rinne with a slapper from the right point. The Blackhawks grabbed a two goal lead late in the second period when Tomas Kopecky converted a feed from fellow Countyman Hossa at 17:31, but the Predators got it right back at 17:31 when David Legwand fed Ward on the left side for an easy tip in to cut the Hawk lead to 3-2. Nashville, out shot 24-8 through two periods,had an edge in play in the third and grabbed the lead back on a pair of Martin Erat goals.The first came at 1:34 off J.P.Dumont’s pass,and the Preds took a 4-3 lead when Erat beat Niemi at 11:39. The Predators appeared to be in great shape when Hossa picked up a five minute major for boarding Dan Hamhuis with 1:03 to play. That meant that even with Niemi pulled for an extra attacker,they were only at equal strength skater wise. Nashville kept the puck in the Hawk zone until the final :30 and when Seabrook passed it out to Jonathan Toews,the Hawks had their last chance.Toews took a shot which deflected right to Patrick Kane,and he tipped it home with :14 left to tie the game and force overtime.When the O.T. started, Hossa still had 3:56 left on his boarding penalty but the Hawks killed it off with Niemi making a couple of grade A saves. Just ten seconds after Hossa emerged from the penalty box, it was over.

NOTES—Game Five is Monday night in Nashville……Attendance was 22,115.

LES