Duncan Keith, left, and Jonathan Toews are among the crowd of Chicago Blackhawks gathering at the boards after the team's Game 4 overtime victory. (Nam. Y. Huh/Associated Press)

Andrew Ladd scored at 2:52 of overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-1 victory on Thursday night and tie the team's series with the Vancouver Canucks heading into Game 5 on Saturday.

Ladd redirected Dave Bolland's shot past Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo for the win.

Darcy Hordichuk's first career playoff goal in the second period appeared it might hold up for the Canucks due to Luongo's outstanding play, but Martin Havlat scored for the Blackhawks with just 2:44 remaining in regulation.

Havlat's goal was set up by Ladd.

"I think both goals were a great job by Ladd," Havlat told Hockey Night in Canada. "The first one was a great job on the boards, and I just had a free shot and was happy it went in, and the other one was a great tip in front of the goalie."

It was Chicago's first goal on Luongo in over 86 minutes, but they would score again just over five minutes later to regain momentum in the series.

The teams head back to Vancouver for Game 5, which will be broadcast on HNIC on Saturday night (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. PT).

Vancouver played a second strong defensive road game but neglected to test Nikolai Khabibulin enough, finishing with just 14 shots in regulation. The Canucks stifled the Blackhawks for long stretches, however, and were bailed out by Luongo during the exceptions.

"There wasn't a lot of room for us, and there wasn't a lot of room for them," said Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault, who described it as one of the best hockey chess matches he's seen this season. "They might have had a few more chances five-on-five, but they didn't get a ton.

"Obviously we needed to do a little more as far as generating and spending time in their zone, but there wasn't a lot of space out there."

The Blackhawks came out with fervor, opening up a 5-0 shots advantage. Havlat and Jonathan Toews tested Luongo early with two shots each.

Vancouver survived an early Chicago power play and then fizzled on a man advantage of their own.

The Canucks were outshot 9-4 in the opening period, with two of the shots coming from the back end.

"I still thought our first period tonight was the best of the four games," said Chicago coach Joel Quenneville. "I don't think we gave up many chances or opportunities."

Luongo kept his scoreless streak alive midway through the second on a Toews wrister and Troy Brouwer's follow-up attempt. Later in the same sequence, Matt Walker blasted a slapshot into Luongo's pads.

The saves were momentous as the Canucks snuck up the middle following a Ryan Johnson shot block. Rick Rypien skated past the Chicago blue-line and spun around with a backhand pass to Hordichuk, who skated in alone to beat Khabibulin with a low shot between the pads.

Hordichuk hadn't scored since Jan. 4, a span of 44 games.

Luongo appeared to be shaken up after Kris Versteeg barrelled into the net not long after the Vancouver goal, but it didn't stop him from making a spectacular splits save on Patrick Sharp.

Vancouver's regrets

The Canucks will likely rue a couple of chances to go up by two goals in the third period.

Kevin Bieksa couldn't find Henrik Sedin with a pass on a two-on-one just over five minutes into the period.

The Canucks had a similar chance about five minutes later, but Chicago defenceman Brian Campbell played it perfectly to deny Alex Burrows a play with the puck.

At the other end, the Blackhawks were limited to outside shots over the first 12 minutes of the final frame.

"We didn't give them much, but we had two clear two-on-one's where we didn't even get a chance on net," said Vigneault. "You've got to put those away."

Ladd would presage his winning goal by winning a battle on the boards to tie the game. The puck squirted to Havlat, who fired a wrister between Luongo's left arm and his body with just 2:44 remaining.

"We knew it was going to come," Blackhawks forward Bolland said. "There were just chances and chances and chances, and Havvy put that one in."

Vigneault said it was almost a complete breakdown on his team's part.

"We were a couple of minutes away from winning this game, but we made four mistakes on the same play and the puck ended up in the back of our net — a turnover, two forwards in the wrong position and the [defence] not closing quick enough on a guy coming right in the slot," he said.

There were tense moments at both ends of the ice in the waning seconds of the third. Mitchell wound up for a slapshot in Chicago's end but took too long getting a shot off, with the Blackhawks blocking the attempt to spring Bolland on a breakaway.

Bolland manoeuvred himself out of position to even take a shot, helped along by a borderline slash from Canucks defenceman Alex Edler.

"I thought it was a penalty," Bolland said. "He sort of came over and shook his stick into my hands. It's a questionable call, but that's the way the game goes."

For a game that was tightly played, overtime was wide open for the few moments it lasted.

Vancouver missed the net on an odd-man chance early in the frame and Khabibulin was called upon to make his toughest saves in nearly two periods, stopping Burrows and Henrik Sedin.

Not long after, Bolland spun around and fired a shot that Ladd sent in a different direction past a helpless Luongo.

"Bolland has great patience with the puck," Ladd said. "He turned around, saw my stick and got it to the right spot. We've got a little momentum here and can take it back to Vancouver."

Chicago is now 2-0 in overtime in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, with Havlat scoring the previous extra-period winner in the team's first-round series against Calgary.

Quenneville said he admired his team's pluck in fighting back but that he hoped in the next game the Blackhawks could score the first goal for the first time in the series.

With files from The Associated Press