All eyes are on Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith as the series between the Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks shifts to Chicago on Tuesday night.
Smith has been able to turn away 89 of 95 shots on goal from the Blackhawks so far this series, but couldn’t shake off a big hit by Chicago’s Andrew Shaw.
“If you look, my eyes were focused on the puck, and I was leaning forward to get to the puck. When he turned to fire it my way, I kind of panicked — I didn’t want to get hit in the face,” Shaw said.
” So I kind of turned my body, and at the last second his head came out, and I tried turning my shoulder away, but I had nowhere to go. I was right against the boards, and unfortunately the collision happened.”
Smith looked like he had been gang tackled when he was blasted in the second period of Game Two. It looked like it could be bad news for the Coyotes’ best player when he missed practice yesterday, along with two other key players. Martin Hanzal and left wing Lauri Korpikoski also missed a run through with various injuries.
“He’s been tough to get pucks past,” Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook told the Associated Press. “We’re putting a lot of pucks on Smith, he’s a great goaltender.”
Head coach Dave Tippett said all three will be back Tuesday night as the Coyotes try to take the series lead on the road. Bovada actually favors the Blackhawks by 1 1/2 goals and a -150 moneyline. Chicago is 7-1 in its last eight home playoff games.
Split at one apiece, the series has been about as back and forth as you can get. Both of the first two games have gone to overtime, both times when Chicago scored tying goals with less than 15 seconds to go. The Coyotes were just five seconds from taking a 2-0 series lead over the weekend until a goal by Patrick 
Sharp pushed it into another period. Bryan Bickell took it from there, pushing the winning goal through to keep the Blackhawks in the series. The score mean Phoenix had allowed more goals (4) in one game than it had in its previous six wins combined.
It also broke Chicago’s four-game losing streak to Phoenix dating back to the regular season.
The Blackhawks are the first team in NHL history to score game-tying goals with less than 15 seconds left in regulation in back-to-back playoff games. Still with me? Essentially it means don’t count them out.
“We feel good about ourselves. We obviously let that one slip away last game, but we just want to get back out there and play and redeem ourselves,” Coyotes’ defenseman Keith Yandle told the AP.