My stream of consciousness is flowing like the Trinity River was back in June 2007 when we set a rainfall record for any June here in the Metroplex.
That's what happens when one of my teams has a heart stopping win.
And since the second game of the night is currently in the second intermission with Detroit leading 4-2...
G4: Blackhawks 2, Canucks 1 OT (Series tied 2-2)
With no Sami Salo on the blueline, Vancouver played things close to vest and relied upon their all world netminder and their solid defense, and timely goal scoring to bring home a 3-1 win in Game 3.
And after Darcy Hordichuk opened the scoring for the fourth consecutive game for the Canucks in this series, they tried that same formula. And that almost delivered another win in Second City that would have given them a 3-1 stranglehold on the series.
I say almost because just when things were really looking dire, the Havlat-Bolland-Ladd line outworked the Bernier-Pyatt-Wellwood line with the Mitchell-Bieksa defensive pairing, Andrew Ladd found Marty Havlat all alone in the slot, and Havlat embracing time and space, he found some space through Roberto Luongo's five hole and tied the game with 2:44 left in regulation.
And then after the Hawks survived Henrik Sedin missing an open net on a one timer earlier in the extra frame, the same line responsible for tying the game ending it 2:52 into OT when Dave Bolland, proving that no shot in OT is a bad shot, saw there was traffic in front of Luongo, turned and fired a half slapper that deflected off Ladd's backhand and into the net.
Just like that, Chicago is invigorated with life, again, in the playoffs.
Now I wasn't prepared to write them off had Vancouver picked up this win. Afterall, the Canucks nearly blew a 3-1 series lead back in 2007 to your Dallas Stars. And this Chicago outfit seems like the type that would be equipped to overcome such a deficit if faced with it.
But a 3-1 mountain is a huge mountain no matter what. And it's made all that more formidible considering Chicago has yet to score the first goal in any game in this series. That right there usually plays into Vancouver's hands more often than not.
Fortunately, that's a scenario that Chicago won't have to face in this series.
G4: Red WIngs 6, Ducks 3 (Series tied 2-2)
Well, Detroit wasn't afraid of scoring three goals tonight.
Or even four, five, or six.
Their first near must win of the series resulted in two goal performances each by Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa en route to a 6-3 win after Corey Perry had scored in the opening minute of the game.
From that point on, it was all Detroit. Even after Perry netted his second of the game off a broken play to tie the score at 2-2, I never got the feeling that Anaheim would win this one.
The Red Wings were still controlling play, scoring chances were coming easier to them than they were on Tuesday night. And most importantly, Jonas Hiller looked mortal.
And he was chased after Mikael Samuelsson rang a perfect shot in off the far post to register Detroit's fifth goal of the game. Scott Niedermayer scored to make things a little interesting on the power play before Henrik Zetterberg salted it away with an empty netter.
So Detroit has all the momentum, right?
Well...OK...Maybe.
Of course, I thought they would steamroll the Ducks in 2007 after winning Game 3 by a 4-0 score and drawing a suspension of Chris Pronger on an elbow to the head of Tomas Holmstrom. Instead, Anaheim rattled off three consecutive wins in the series to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
I'm sure Mike Babcock is reminding his team of that very fact at this very moment.
And he'll probably mention it on the bus to the hotel. And again, on the ride to the airport. And maybe five more times on the airplane.
Well see if that message sinks in by Sunday.