REWIND: Saad Avenges with Equalizer as Hawks Take 3OT Win

When the 2015 playoffs rolled around, there was an underlying motivation for much of the core group that had come within a bounce of a second straight Cup Final the year before, falling to the L.A. Kings in overtime in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.

"It's definitely a bitter taste in your mouth," recalled Brandon Saad, who in his first full NHL season was part of the Stanley Cup team in 2013. "At the same time it kind of brings back some of that hunger where you realize it's not something that's going to happen every year. It's something you've got to work for and that kind of lights a fire for the next year."

The Kings needed just five games to dispatch of the New York Rangers in the Final 12 days later. Saad and the 2014-15 Blackhawks were out to avoid that same pain, coming so close without winning it all.

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In Game 4 against the Predators in the First Round, there was another moment of fleeting regret. Up 2-1 in the series and having played a complete game for the first time two nights earlier, the line of Saad, Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews watched the visitors take a 2-1 lead midway through the second period off a failed defensive zone clearance. Hossa couldn't cleanly handle a pass inside his own blue line and Nashville quickly went the other way, James Neal slipping a broken shot past Duncan Keith and Scott Darling on the weak side.

"That's something as a line, you never want to be scored on," Saad recalled. "When that happens in a game, you just kind of shake it off and you want to kind of make up for it and us as a line, we felt like we could do that."

In the middle of the third, Hossa entered the zone along the far boards against a trio white sweaters. He held the puck as he cut through the slot, drawing all three Predators him in the process, and then left the puck in the high slot for the late-trailing Saad. With time and space, the winger beat Pekka Rinne "I think high blocker" to tie things up, 2-2.

"When you're playing with guys like him (Hossa), it's huge for your game," Saad recalled. "It almost makes it easier because he's always holding onto the puck, bringing guys to him, fighting guys off. He's a bigger threat so guys tend to go to him and then I have the time and space in the middle and all you have to do is put the icing on the cake."

The equalizer pushed the game into not one, not two but three overtimes -- past midnight in Chicago -- before Brent Seabrook, Mr. Overtime it would seem, ripped a one-timer from the point past a Bryan Bickell screen in front for his third career playoff OT winner and a 3-1 series lead.

"'Seabs' is just great under pressure. He kind of thrives under that pressure where he wants to be the guy. Maybe he shoots it more in those situations, but everyone knows he has a cannon from the point," Saad said. "In those overtime games, he just seems to find a way in. Guys seem to be at the net more, traffic's happening. He always unleashes the cannon and the pressure doesn't seem to get to him, so he's always feeling good in those moments and that shows."