CHICAGO — Dustin Byfug- lien skated hard into the high slot and Dave Bolland delivered the puck to him just at the right moment. Byfuglien drove it into the net and suddenly the Blackhawks were one victory from the Stanley Cup Finals.
The 257-pound Byfuglien scored his seventh goal of this postseason 12:24 into overtime Friday night and the Blackhawks beat the Sharks 3-2 to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
“It’s great, something I’ll definitely remember,” Byfuglien said. “Bolland made a good play and just laid it out in the slot, and all I had to do was finish.”
And that’s what the Blackhawks hope to do Sunday at the United Center — finish off the Sharks, the regular-season champions of the Western Conference and get to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1992.
“With San Jose, they’re such a good team, we definitely can’t, you know, let off at all. We got to keep going right to the final buzzer,” Byfuglien said.
Bolland scored on a breakaway to put Chicago ahead 2-1 in the third period, but Patrick Marleau answered with a rebound goal with 4:23 left in regulation to tie it and force overtime.
Marleau also scored in the second period on a power play, giving him four goals in two games. Patrick Sharp had a man-advantage goal for the Blackhawks.
If the Sharks need any comfort, they can look to this year’s playoffs when the Flyers came from 3-0 down to eliminate the Bruins.
“It just happened, so it’s not impossible. We can try to feed off of that,” Marleau said.
