And after the horn sounded and the crowd roared for what the Flyers thought was a game-winning score five minutes into the extra period, Claude Giroux made sure there was no doubt about it shortly thereafter.
The Flyers caught the Hawks in a line change and Giroux redirected a pass by defenseman Matt Carle for the game-winner that counted, sealing a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 3 and cutting the Hawks' series lead to 2-1.
"It's one of those games, from start to finish, it could have gone either way," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Timely goal by them at the end, but we had some timely goals ourselves. It's pretty competitive, where we're at."
Game 4 is set for Friday, with a Game 5 at the United Center on Sunday now guaranteed.
"We're still in a good position," Hawks winger Patrick Kane said. "Hopefully we can win (Friday) and take it back home."
"We're up 2-1," center Jonathan Toews said. "That's a great situation to be in. We've still got to play with a lot of confidence and we have to believe in each other. It was a tough building to play in tonight and that was a desperate team. ... We're going to get ready for the next one and that's all we can worry about right now."
At the 5:02 mark of overtime, a shot by the Flyers' Simon Gagne ricocheted off the stick of the Hawks' Dave Bolland and hit the far post. And then, amazingly, it slid directly across the goal line -- but somehow never over it before Antti Niemi scooped it safely away.
Officials checked the replay and ruled no-goal. It was the second time in Game 3 that a scoring play for the Flyers was reviewed, the first resulting in a Scott Hartnell goal in the second period.
Then not too long after that, the Hawks were in the middle of a line change as the Flyers streaked up ice, with Giroux angling in front of Carle's foray to beat Niemi.
Kane had quieted the Wachovia Center crowd with a breakaway goal early in the third period to give the Hawks their first lead in Game 3, only to have the Flyers' Ville Leino score 20 seconds later and once again knot matters up at 3-3, where the score stood all the way to the end of regulation.
Toews corralled a loose puck and found a streaking Kane, who snapped off a wrister from the slot to beat Michael Leighton and put the Hawks up 3-2 at the 2:50 mark of the third. It was Kane's first goal since Game 6 of the conference semifinals against the Canucks.
But before Kane's goal even was announced to the crowd, Leino took a rebound off a shot by Giroux and slammed it home for the equalizer at the 3:10 mark.
Before that, two of the Blackhawks' warhorses have helped them knot things up heading into the third period.
Veteran center John Madden won a faceoff and sent the puck back to veteran defenseman Brent Sopel, who sent a blast through three Flyers and into the net to tie the game at 2-2.
Madden beat the Flyers' Mike Richards cleanly, and then Sopel's shot somehow threaded through a trio of Flyers stacked in goalie Leighton's view for his first goal of the postseason at the 17:52 mark. It was just Sopel's third goal in 61 career playoff games.
This after the Flyers again jumped ahead of the Blackhawks, about two minutes after they actually jumped ahead.
An official review changed a no-goal call to a power-play score by Hartnell, providing a 2-1 lead over the Hawks midway through the second period.
The shot slid through Niemi and, despite the red light flashing and the goal horn sounding, officials ruled that the Hawks' Niklas Hjalmarsson cleared the puck before it completely crossed the goal-line 10 minutes into the second.
But once play stopped about two minutes later, officials reviewed the footage and ruled the puck indeed crossed the line. It was bitter, too, for the Hawks, as the tally arrived after Chris Pronger goaded Dustin Byfuglien into a slashing penalty moments earlier.
The Hawks had come back to tie it when Kane at last got on the scoresheet in the finals, shooting a nice cross-ice pass to Duncan Keith that the Hawks defenseman blasted in to make it a 1-1 tie early in the second period.
Marian Hossa wrestled the puck away behind the net and fed it to Kane, who circled out into the zone and then zipped the pass to Keith. The shot from just inside the blue line then ricocheted off the blade of the Flyers' Jeff Carter and past Leighton for the equalizer, Keith's second goal of the playoffs. The assist was Kane's first point of the finals.
Danny Briere's power-play goal provided a 1-0 lead for the Flyers after one period of play -- a period that ended with tempers boiling over and mini-scrums erupting on the ice.
Shots off the post by Toews and Kane didn't count for much, and when Hossa went to the box for slashing at the 13:54 mark, the Flyers pounced. Niemi couldn't control a rebound on a blast from the wing, and the Flyers' Hartnell made a fantastic pass while falling down to Briere, who punched home his 11th goal of the playoffs at the 14:58 mark for the lead.
The Hawks would go on the power play in the last two minutes of the period, but the only fireworks occurred after the horn had blown. Byfuglien and Toews were in the middle of a near-brawl in the corner with multiple Flyers, with Pronger wrapping Toews up in a headlock. Kane actually skated into the fray to take a shot at the Flyers' Arron Asham, with Byfuglien then jumping in and earning a two-minute penalty for roughing.
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