Peter Zezel sure knows how to spoil a nice night.
The St. Louis Blues center scored three goals in the third period Friday night as the St. Louis Blues rallied to tie the Blackhawks 3-3 before an announced United Center crowd of 14,332 in the Hawks’ exhibition home opener.
Jeff Hackett was enjoying his second straight solid outing when Zezel came to life.
One of Hackett’s biggest stops came with 10 seconds left in the first period, when the Blues’ Mike Hudson came in on him all alone after intercepting an errant pass but didn’t get much on a backhander. Hackett made another nice save midway through the second period, gloving Zezel’s wrist shot on a three-on-one St. Louis break.
Eric Daze put the Hawks on the board just 1:01 into the game on a rebound of a Steve Smith shot. It was his third goal of the exhibition season and Denis Savard’s assist on the play gave him three during the preseason.
Ethan Moreau made it 2-0 with 17:15 left in the third period when he knocked home his own rebound. Mike Prokopec and Ivan Droppa assisted on the score.
St. Louis got on the board with 14:34 left when Zezel tipped in a slap shot by Jamie Rivers on a power play. The Hawks countered with a power-play goal of their own with 11:09 left, when Sergei Krivokrasov took a great pass from Kevin Miller and rammed it past Mike Buzak.
Twelve seconds later, Zezel scored again, sending a slap shot over Hackett’s right shoulder to cut the Hawks’ lead to 3-2.
Zezel capped the Blues’ comeback with just 51.9 seconds left remaining in regulation, knocking home a loose puck at the side of the net.
