CHICAGO _ For the first time in a long time, the Blackhawks got to take "Chelsea Dagger" off the shelf with the Predators in town.
After playing nearly 175 minutes of hockey against the new bosses of the Western Conference at the United Center without scoring a goal � a stretch the included two April playoff games � the Hawks finally scored when Patrick Sharp scored late in the third period Saturday.
Then they finally beat the Predators for the first time in a while when Brandon Saad scored the winner in overtime for a 2-1 victory.
For most of the night, the Hawks made their fans experience some bad flashbacks with how the Predators controlled the game. They made life miserable for the Hawks whenever the Hawks tried to enter the offensive zone. The Predators trapping defense made the Hawks chip the puck in more often than the Hawks would have liked, and the Predators were better than the Hawks at retrieving pucks and clearing the zone than the Hawks were. Goaltender Pekka Rinne played a key role in playing the puck and directing it to his teammates.
It was the same way the Predators dominated the Hawks in April. Filip Forsberg's power-play goal 18 minutes, 16 seconds into the second period appeared as if it would stand as the only goal the Predators would need. The Hawks' power play got nowhere in six tries, coach Joel Quenneville mixed his lines in search of any semblance of a pulse and the frustration was visible on the face of Patrick Kane as he headed to the bench during a break in the third period.
But then, a breakthrough, at last. John Hayden won a puck battle along the boards in the Predators zone and shuffled the puck over to Sharp, who sprinted at the net. His shot beat Rinne for the first goal in 174:56. The previous goal had come late in the third period of a Hawks victory on Jan. 8, before the Predators seemed like a viable threat to the Hawks' dominance of the Central Division.
