Last night the Chicago Blackhawks erased the demon of their last minute game two collapse when they held on in game three and came away with a 2-0 victory on home ice. Teams are never truly out of a series until they have lost on home ice, especially the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Last night, Chicago won game three at home, their first win of the series which now sits 2-1 in favor of St. Louis. Captain Jonathan Toews got things started early for Chicago, just 4:10 into period one Toews scored his first of the playoffs to get Chicago out to an early lead. From that point forward it was the Corey Crawford show. Crawford faced 34 shots on the night, and stopped every single one. Crawford looked confident, composed and determined to get Chicago back in this series. Chicago failed to score on any of their four PP opportunities in the second period, which gave the Blues a glimmer of hope heading into the third period. They ramped up the intensity in that period firing 11 shots on net as they desperately fought for the equalizer. Every time they got close, Crawford and the Chicago defense was there to clear rebounds, and keep the puck out of the net. With the memory of the game two collapse fresh on their minds, Chicago managed to hold on and secured the victory with an empty net goal by Marcus Kruger to secure the 2-0 victory.

"Losing back-to-back in OT, after having the lead in the third and having them tie it up late, that's definitely hard to take," said Crawford

With the series intensity ramping up in game two thanks to a Brent Seabrook hit to the head of David Backes (both players were out for game three; Seabrook serving the first of his three game suspension and Backes feeling the effects of the Seabrook hit), last night’s game seemed to take it down just a notch. It was less about battling and scrums and more about winning the hockey game. Hits were prominent in this one though, as the Blues tried to physically dominate the Hawks. It didn’t affect Chicago in this one, as they battled through. St. Louis will likely want to increase the post-whistle action moving forward, it is a style that has allowed them to get in opponents heads all season long. Having less of this type of action will favor the Blackhawks in this series.

Moving forward the Blackhawks will seek to even up the series Wednesday night when these teams meet for game four. If Chicago can secure the victory and even up the series, they will be going back to St. Louis with not only an evened up series, but the momentum at their backs.

St. Louis got a great game from Ryan Miller, they will need more of the same from him and more success from their offense. They need to capitalize on their scoring chances against this Chicago team and will be desperate to take a 3-1 series lead home with them. A long series will favor the defending Cup Champions as they have a wealth of experience to draw on.

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About the author
Shaun Maddex
VAVEL NHL Editor and Writer who grew up playing hockey in Canada.