Avalanche Tie Series With Hawks In Third Ot

Joe Sakic scored 4:33 into the third overtime Wednesday night, lifting Colorado to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at Chicago, ending the longest game in Avalanche history.

The win tied the Western Conference semifinals at two games apiece.

It was the second consecutive overtime game between the teams, the third of the series and Chicago’s fourth in its last five games. Game 5 is Saturday in Denver before the series returns to Chicago for Game 6 Monday.

Ed Belfour made 54 saves for the Blackhawks but still lost for the first time in more than a month. He had been 6-0 this postseason.

Chicago was without defenseman Chris Chelios, who pulled his right groin muscle during warmups.

Avalanche 3, Blackhawks 2 (3OT)

Colorado 0 1 1 0 0 1 - 3

Chicago 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 2

First period - None.

Second period - 1, Colorado, Sakic 11, 1:41. 2, Chicago, Suter 3 (Craven, Nicholls), 4:40.

Third period - 3, Colorado, Kamensky 5 (Sakic, Ozolinsh), 3:49 (pp). 4, Chicago, Shantz 2 (Carney, Probert), 6:15.

First overtime - None.

Second overtime - None.

Third overtime - 5, Colorado, Sakic 12 (Gusarov, Ricci), 4:33.

Shots on goal -Colorado 5-18-9-7-14-4 - 57. Chicago 3-7-6-8-7-3-34. Power-play opportunities - Colorado 1 of 5; Chicago 0 of 3. Goalies - Colorado, Roy 6-4 (34 shots-32 saves). Chicago, Belfour 6-1 (57-54). A-22,454 (20,500).

Blues 5, Red Wings 4 (OT)

St. Louis

Igor Kravchuk intercepted a clearing pass by Viacheslav Fetisov and scored on a slap shot at 3:23 of overtime as St. Louis beat Detroit.

The Blues, who have won only two of their last seven overtime games, cut Detroit’s series lead to 2-1 heading into Game 4 Friday night.

Detroit 1 2 1 0 - 4

St. Louis 3 0 1 1 - 5

First Period-1, Detroit, Konstantinov 3 (Larionov, Kozlov), 1:34. 2, St. Louis, MacInnis 3 (Hull, Corson), 4:43. 3, St. Louis, Noonan 4 (Creighton, Pronger), 5:05. 4, St. Louis, Corson 8 (MacInnis, Gretzky), 7:58 (pp).

Second Period-5, Detroit, Yzerman 5 (Lidstrom, Fedorov), 2:57 (pp). 6, Detroit, Yzerman 6 (Errey, McCarty), 8:56.

Third Period-7, Detroit, Yzerman 7 (Lidstrom, Kozlov), 3:08 (pp). 8, St. Louis, Twist 1 (Kravchuk, Wells), 8:46.

Overtime-9, St. Louis, Kravchuk 1, 3:23.

Shots on goal-Detroit 5-17-10-2-34. St. Louis 8-8-6-1-23.Power-play opp.-Detroit 2 of 6; St. Louis 1 of 6.Goalies-Detroit, Vernon 2-2 (23 shots-18 saves). St. Louis, Casey 4-4 (34-30).A-20,796 (19,260).