Marian Hossa’s OT goals gives Blackhawks 5-4 win and 3-2 series lead over Predators

Hossa’s OT goal gives Chicago 3-2 lead over Preds

CHICAGO — Patrick Kane’s short-handed goal tied the game with 13.6 seconds left in regulation and Marian Hossa came out of the penalty box to score the winner 4:07 into overtime as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Nashville Predators 5-4 on Saturday to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round series.

Chicago can advance in the Western Conference playoffs with a win at Nashville on Monday night.

The Blackhawks blew a 3-1 lead, and the Predators went ahead 4-3 with two third-period goals by Martin Erat.

With Nashville protecting its lead late and on a major power play created by Hossa’s boarding penalty against defenseman Dan Hamhuis, Kane backhanded in a rebound off a shot by Jonathan Toews to tie it with his third goal of the series. Although the Blackhawks were short-handed, they negated Nashville’s skating advantage by pulling goalie Antti Niemi.

The Blackhawks killed the remaining 3:57 of Hossa’s penalty in overtime. The Predators are the only team in this year’s playoffs without a power-play goal. Their latest failure with the game on the line pushed the drought to 0 for 21 with the advantage.

Hossa hit the ice after his penalty expired and put himself in position to win the game. He got the puck on the left side of the net after a shot from teammate Brent Sopel appeared to deflect to him off the stick of Nashville’s Joel Ward.

Hossa then slid a shot past goalie Pekka Rinne for his second career postseason overtime goal. This one sent the crowd at the United Center into pandemonium.

Andrew Ladd, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Tomas Kopecky also had goals for Chicago in regulation.

David Legwand had a goal, and Joel Ward added a short-handed tally for the Predators.

Rinne had 27 saves and Niemi made 17. Nashville ended up 0 for 4 on the power play.

Erat took a nice crossing pass from Denis Grebeshkov, was wide open on the edge of the right circle, and beat Niemi on the stick side — his fourth goal of the series — to put the Predators ahead at 11:39.

Less than 2 minutes into the third period, Erat scored from in front as he broke in and took a nifty pass from J.P. Dumont in the right circle. That tied the game at 3-3.

The Predators played their fourth straight game without leading goal scorer Patric Hornqvist, who has been out with an upper body injury.

Kopecky’s goal, seconds after a Nashville power play ended, gave the Blackhawks a 3-1 lead at 16:24 of the second period.

Kopecky came out of the penalty box and was skating across the rink, but when Hossa cleared the puck up the ice, Kopecky caught up with it, skated in, faked Rinne and pushed in a backhand.

Nashville responded quickly a minute later with a short-handed goal by Ward, who took a nice pass from Legwand on a 3-on-1 and scored to cut the Chicago lead back to one.

Hjalmarsson fired a shot from the left point and the puck went flying past Rinne, who was apparently screened by Chicago’s Bryan Bickell and teammate Kevin Klein. The defenseman’s first career playoff goal gave the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead with just more than 5 minutes left in the first.

Nashville, shut out twice in the series by Niemi, struck first. With Ward screening Niemi, Legwand lifted a wrist shot from high on the right circle that cleared the goalie’s right shoulder.

Less than a minute later, Dumont hit the post with a shot and initially raised his stick, thinking he had put the Predators up by two. That is how close it came to going in.

But Ladd worked his way inside the defense, and when Brent Seabrook’s hard slapper from deep bounced off Rinne, he was there to knock it in and tie the game.

NOTES: D Grebeshkov made his first appearance in a game since sustaining a groin injury on March 7 and had two assists. RW wing Jordin Tootoo played despite taking 45 stitches after being hit in the face by a puck in Game 4 on Thursday night. … The game was held up — humorously — late in the opening period when the puck got lodged in Niemi’s uniform. Neither he nor the officials could find it for about a minute.