Blackhawks break through on Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings now know one thing: It’s not going to be easy.

The Blackhawks got themselves right back into the Western Conference finals series with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Wings in Game 3 on Friday night at the United Center. The win cut Chicago’s deficit series to two games to one with Game 4 scheduled for Sunday.

It could be a costly victory, however, as both star winger Martin Havlat and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin left the game because of injuries. Their statuses for Game 4 were unknown.

The Blackhawks roared to a three-goal lead early in the second period on scores by Patrick Sharp, Andrew Ladd and Sammy Pahlsson before the Wings tied it up with an offensive onslaught late in the second.

Sharp then scored the winner 1 minute 52 seconds into overtime to save the Hawks from facing a 0-3 disadvantage in the best-of-seven series.

“If we’re down 3-0 it’s as good as over,” said Pahlsson, a former Duck who assisted on the winning goal. “It’s a huge hole to climb out of so 2-1 is a big difference. We really needed that win.

“Not only do we know we can beat them, we got one win and we have another home game coming up so we feel good about it. We just have to get another one.”

Trailing 3-0, the Wings got goals from Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Jonathan Ericsson in the waning minutes of the second to tie it up.

Sharp put the Hawks ahead 1-0 at the 8:45 mark of the first when he tipped in a Brent Seabrook shot from just inside the blue line. Camped in front of goaltender Chris Osgood with Chicago on the power play, Sharp got a stick on Seabrook’s shot for his sixth goal of the postseason.

With the crowd still abuzz, Ladd made it 2-0 just 1:05 later with his third of the playoffs. The veteran winger knocked in a rebound of his own shot from in close past Osgood.

Havlat suffered his injury after a vicious hit by Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall about three minutes later, resulting in 19 minutes in penalties, including 15 to Kronwall.

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ckuc@tribune.com