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(PhatzRadio / AP) — CHICAGO – In case they weren’t aware already, the Chicago Blackhawks now know they’re going to have to earn it if they want to get past Detroit.

The Red Wings hammered home that message on Saturday.

Damien Brunner and Brendan Smith scored in the second period and Detroit beat the Blackhawks 4-1 in Game 2 to even their Western Conference semifinal series.

It was a strong response by the Red Wings after Chicago handled them easily in the series opener, 4-1.

“We’ve got a real good club now,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “And we haven’t been good all year. We’ve just gotten better.”

Their confidence got a big jolt after they knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy winners and avoided falling into a deep hole. It was another big win by a team that finished seventh in the conference, only to knock off second-seeded Anaheim in the first round.

Now, they’re even with a team that’s been rolling along all season and is eyeing its second Stanley Cup in four years.

“Both teams would be stupid if they thought they were going to come in here and either team win four straight,” Chicago’s Brent Seabrook said.

Just as the Blackhawks did in Game 1, Detroit took control in the second period and put the game away in the third. Now, the Red Wings have a chance to take the lead when this series between Original Six rivals shifts to Detroit for Game 3 on Monday.

“Overall, I think we had more energy,” the Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg said. “We did a lot of the little things better than we did in Game 1 and when we got our chances we were able to put the puck in the net.”

Patrick Kane gave Chicago a 1-0 lead late in the first, but did things ever change after that.

Brunner tied it when he deflected a wrist shot by Jakub Kindl early in the second, and Smith gave the Red Wings the lead when he scored off a feed from Zetterberg on a 3-on-1 late in the second.

Johan Franzen made it 3-1 in the third when he fired a rising shot past Corey Crawford after a perfect pass from Jonathan Ericsson in the Detroit zone. And Valtteri Filppula closed out the scoring with 7:57 left in the game.

That was enough for Jimmy Howard, who stopped 19 shots.

Crawford made 26 saves for Chicago and played well at times even though things got out of hand down the stretch. When it was over, coach Joel Quenneville insisted his faith in his goalie hasn’t wavered.

“Not at all,” he said. “Across the board, we should all assume responsibility.”

The Red Wings were simply a step faster and were more physical in this one after the Blackhawks ran away from them in the opener.

“I think just by taking care of our own end first, making good plays, you end up playing a faster game that way,” Smith said. “By taking away their speed, it helps out ours. You want to get a lot of contact on these types of teams, and it works out for us.”

The Blackhawks still struck first thanks to a lucky bounce after Detroit’s Kyle Quincey sprawled out to block a pass across the slot by Patrick Sharp that was intended for Kane on a 2-on-1 rush. The puck bounced to a trailing Michal Handzus, who immediately fed it to a wide open Kane in the right slot. He fired it into the net at the 14:05 mark for a 1-0 lead and his first goal of the playoffs.

About a minute later, with the Red Wings on a power play, Crawford made a nice save on Zetterberg before Pavel Datsyuk ripped a shot high off the right post.

Detroit tied it early in the second when a wrist shot by Kindl from just inside the blue line deflected off Brunner and past a screened Crawford, who didn’t even react as the puck went past him on the glove side.

But Chicago’s goalie had the fans chanting his name midway through the period with two great saves, stopping Zetterberg from the slot and sprawling out to foil Daniel Cleary on the rebound.

The Red Wings took a 2-1 lead with 3:52 left in the second after Chicago’s Niklas Hjalmarsson fell racing Zetterberg for a loose puck. Zetterberg then dished to Smith on a 2-on-1 rush for the go-ahead goal.

“He creates a lot of stuff, sometimes for both teams,” Zetterberg said in a nod to Smith’s struggles in Game 1.

There weren’t many mistakes by the Red Wings in this one. Other than Kane’s goal, they contained the Blackhawks’ stars and made it look easy over the final two periods.

“They kind of used our own style against us as far as holding onto the puck and keeping it away from us,” Kane said.

NOTES: LW Drew Miller was in the Red Wings’ lineup for the first time since April 20. He had been sidelined by a broken bone in his right hand. … F Viktor Stalberg was a healthy scratch for the Blackhawks, just as he was in Game 1. “I don’t like changing too much, but we wanted to get (Dave Bolland) in our lineup,” Quenneville said before the game. “It’s comparable to what we’ve done during season. But we’ll see. We can adapt and change at any moment.” … Quenneville on the early start: “I think the guys, once they get in, they don’t mind playing in the afternoon.”

Logan Couture scores PP goal in OT to give Sharks 2-1 victory over Kings in Game 3

(PhatzRadio / AP) — SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Los Angeles Kings are now the team bemoaning a late penalty while the San Jose Sharks celebrate a dramatic win.

With the script being flipped from Game 2 in Los Angeles, the Sharks have played their way back into this second-round series against their Southern California rivals.

Logan Couture returned from a second-period injury to score a power-play goal 1:29 into overtime that helped the Sharks bounce back from two losses in Los Angeles to beat the Kings 2-1 in Game 3 on Saturday night.

The second loss was particularly crushing as San Jose led 3-2 late in regulation before a pair of penalties — including a questionable delay-of-game call — led to two power-play goals that gave Los Angeles a 2-0 series lead. Instead of moping around, the Sharks responded with a big win.

“I thought the transition from being down to, ‘Let’s get ready to go,’ was exceptional,” coach Todd McLellan said. “The leaders did a great job. But you always have to take that test. You find out a lot about your team. We obviously showed up to play tonight.”

This time, the Sharks were the beneficiaries of some late game calls.

Tommy Wingels drew a hooking penalty on Robyn Regehr with 41.7 seconds left in regulation. But the call that really had the Kings steaming came when Trevor Lewis was called for goaltender interference when he crashed into Antti Niemi with 4.5 seconds remaining.

Los Angeles argued that Patrick Marleau pushed Lewis, and goalie Jonathan Quick got a game misconduct for arguing with the officials after the game.

“I find it very tough to believe that a player as intelligent as Trevor Lewis, that he’d run the goalie,” Kings forward Dustin Penner said. “I asked him and he said he got pushed from behind. I believe him. I’m disappointed that the refs had enough confidence to make a gutsy call like that in the last 30 seconds of the period.

“It’s pretty impressive when you have enough gall to guess because I’m going to look at the tape and I’m going to see if he got pushed because I know what it’s like to drive the net.”

That gave San Jose a 5-on-3 advantage for the first 1:19 of overtime. The Sharks couldn’t convert with two extra men, but got the winner after Regehr came back when Marleau set up Couture in front, who beat Quick for the game-winner.

“They said we got a break last game, so now they got a break,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.

Dan Boyle scored a power-play goal early in the first period, and Niemi made 26 saves for the Sharks, who have dominated on home ice all season.

Rookie Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings, who had won six straight games since dropping the first two in the opening round in St. Louis. Quick made 38 saves.

Game 4 is Tuesday night in San Jose.

Couture’s first career playoff overtime goal came after he missed most of the second period when he limped off the ice favouring his left leg. He returned to an ovation in the final minute of the second and then got the Sharks back into the series in overtime.

“When you see someone leave after stepping on a puck like that, you don’t know if he’s going to come back or not,” Marleau said. “And now he has his stick back in the game. And he scores the overtime winner. It’s huge. It’s to see him be able to push through that kind of pain.”

The Sharks survived a scoreless second period in which they played with a short bench for much of it. Marty Havlat, back for the first time since being knocked out of Game 1 in the first round because of a lower-body injury, left after the first period and didn’t return.

Defenceman Scott Hannan missed time early in the period after sliding face first into the boards, and Couture was also out.

Despite having just 10 forwards for most of the period, the Sharks got the better chances with only a sterling pad save by Quick against Andrew Desjardins keeping the game tied at 1 heading into the third.

“Guys really stepped up,” Pavelski said. “The fourth line played a lot. Guys stepped up with short shifts. We had good game management. We did a good job.”

The sold-out crowd was in a frenzy from the start, hoping to help the Sharks rebound from the late-game collapse in Game 2 in Los Angeles that put them in the 0-2 hole.

This time, the Sharks were on the positive end of a puck being played into the seats, getting a power play 90 seconds into the game when Jake Muzzin’s clearing attempt went over the glass for a delay of game. It took just 4 seconds for San Jose to get its first power-play goal of the series as Joe Pavelski won the faceoff against Anze Kopitar back to Marleau, who fed Boyle for the blast from inside the blue line.

The Kings withstood that early storm, getting the equalizer shortly after killing a second power play midway through the period. Brad Stuart turned the puck over, trying to come out of the defensive zone, right to Toffoli, who skated in and beat Niemi with a backhand to make it 1-1.

NOTES: The Kings made a couple of lineup switches with F Tanner Pearson playing in place of Jordan Nolan, and Keaton Ellerby replacing Alec Martinez, who was on the ice for all three San Jose goals in Game 2. Pearson is the third Kings player ever to make his NHL debut in the post-season. … The Sharks were fined $100,000 before the game for general manager Doug Wilson’s comments Friday criticizing the suspension of F Raffi Torres for the rest of the series for his Game 1 hit that knocked out Jarret Stoll.

NHL Roundup: Brunner, Smith lead charge as Red Wings beat Blackhawks 4-1 in Game 2 to tie Western semifinal is a post from: PhatzRadio.com

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