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Havlat lifts Blackhawks to OT win over Ducks

Mar 4, 2009 - 6:10 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Martin Havlat scored 1:40 into overtime Tuesday, lifting the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

Troy Brouwer and Andrew Ladd scored first-period goals for Chicago, which surrendered a two-goal lead before Havlat scored his 21st goal of the season to clinch the win.

Drew Miller scored his first goal of the season and rookie Bobby Ryan also tallied for the Ducks, who concluded their season-long, six-game road trip with a 3-3-0 mark.

After extending his point streak to nine games with an assist on Ladd's goal, Havlat gave Chicago back-to-back wins following a three-game slide.

"I saw the puck coming out of the zone and the guy next to me was more tired than I was, so I tried to beat him one-on-one," Havlat said.

The right wing picked up a loose puck and skated past Corey Perry and in on Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere. With Perry draped on his back, Havlat managed to lift a shot past Giguere, giving the Blackhawks their third straight win over the Ducks.

"It's a play where he did a great job of blocking me out and got it back short side," Perry said. "You have to tip your cap to him he made a good play."

"That line (Havlat, Ladd and Dave Bolland) has been great for us, they draw a top assignment and have been scoring," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "Marty had a good game and a great goal. This is a big two points for us."

Giguere stopped 34 shots for Anaheim, which had won three of four but stands in a three-way tie with Edmonton and Nashville for seventh place in the Western Conference.

"Overall this has been a positive road trip," Giguere said. "We have been in every game but Boston (a 6-0 loss). Now that we go home we really need the wins. We haven't done that at home this year, so it's time to step up and be strong."

Brouwer put Chicago ahead just 63 seconds into the contest and Ladd doubled the advantage with 8:34 left in the opening session on his 11th goal of the season.

"This is a very important win for us, after the first period we stopped playing a bit," Havlat said. "At the end, this game could have gone both ways. So it's nice to get the win and two points."

Anaheim scored a pair of goals in the opening 4:27 of the second period to knot the score at 2-2. After Miller beat Cristobal Huet to cut the deficit in half, Ryan, who leads all rookies in goals, scored his 22nd of the season on a backhander.

"We weren't happy about our first period and we kind of heard about it at the intermission," Perry said. "So we didn't want to roll over and die and we have character in this locker room. We will take that point and run."

Huet made 26 saves in his first start after resting Sunday in place of rookie Antti Niemi.