Byline: Bob Foltman
CHICAGO _ This may be getting serious.
The Detroit Red Wings controlled Friday night's game from start to finish, but the Blackhawks won, 3-2, in overtime to run their unbeaten streak to 4-0-1.
Jaroslav Spacek scored the winner at 2 minutes 25 seconds of overtime for his first goal as a Hawk. Steve Sullivan and Boris Mironov had the assists. Jocelyn Thibault secured the two points with a splendid night, making 29 saves.
For the Hawks, sitting behind five teams for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, every game needs to be treated with urgency. And the crowd of 22,178_the largest of the season with many folks making the commute from Detroit_gave the United Center the appropriate, playoff-like atmosphere.
Chris Herperger put the Hawks on the board at 7:22 of the first period off the kind of play for which coach Alpo Suhonen has been longing.
With a Hawks' power play ending, Stephane Quintal sent a shot from just inside the blue line toward the Detroit goal, and Detroit goalie Chris Osgood couldn't control it. Herperger slipped the puck past Osgood 3 seconds after the Detroit penalty ended.
Igor Larionov, in his first game since being traded from Florida back to the Red Wings, tied the score at 1-1 when he took a feed from Slava Kozlov and split the Hawks defense for a power-play goal at 10:24 of the second.
Larionov, the best 40-year-old on the ice Friday, also had a hand in Detroit's second goal.
Steve Sullivan had given the Hawks a 2-1 lead after two periods off a fortunate bounce to start a breakaway. But Larionov found Sergei Fedorov to complete a tic-tac-toe play with Steve Yzerman for the Red Wings' second power-play goal early in the third.
The power-play chance was created by a bench minor for the Hawks having too many men on the ice during a four-on-four situation.
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(c) 2000, Chicago Tribune.
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