Huet gives up last-second goal

PHILADELPHIA – Hearing his bench screaming, Chris Pronger knew he had time for one chance.

He went wide and received a perfect feed from Claude Giroux and placed a shot past a diving Cristobal Huet with 2.1 seconds remaining to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a comeback 3-2 win against the Blackhawks on Saturday.

The defenseman beat Huet to the glove side to cap a flurry of scoring that saw all five goals tallied in the final period.

Forget overtime or a possible shootout.

“That was huge,” Pronger said. “We didn’t want to make this go into overtime or a shootout. “[Scott] Hartnell made a great play to drive the middle to free me up. I think [Giroux] saw when I was crossing the blue line that I was going wide, and was trying to get it somewhere near where I can whack it toward the net. He made a great pass that landed flat, and I was able to get it over. I just knew the time was clicking down pretty quick. We have to continue to play with that type of desperation.”

Hartnell tied the game with 2:04 left in the third when he corralled a long pass from Kimmo Timonen and beat Huet stick side.

Shortly after Hartnell’s game-tying goal, Huet was skating off with a loss.

“It’s something you have nightmares about,” he said. “It’s not a great feeling, obviously.”

Huet and Flyers goalie Michael Leighton had engaged in a sparkling defensive battle through the first two periods, with each stopping what appeared to be sure goals.

Kris Versteeg tied the game at 3:01 after a Flyers penalty by Danny Briere set up a Hawks power play. Leighton stopped Marian Hossa’s shot, but Versteeg poked in the rebound.

Hossa gave the Hawks the lead after taking a feed from Troy Brouwer near the right face-off circle, and rifled a shot high to Leighton’s stick side with 7:09 left in the game.