Chicago Blackhawks take 3-2 Stanley Cup Finals lead against Tampa Bay Lightning after 2-1 game-five win

The Chicago Blackhawks had barely filed up the tunnel to the visitors' dressing room after another narrow victory in the Stanley Cup Finals when their thoughts turned to home.

With another tenacious road victory in this impossibly close series, the Blackhawks realised they had just earned an opportunity to raise that silver trophy in front of their Chicago faithful on Tuesday morning (HK time).

"We try not to think too far ahead," Blackhawks defender Niklas Hjalmarsson said. "But obviously you're just human."

Antoine Vermette scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the Blackhawks moved to the brink of their third NHL championship in six years with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in game five .

Corey Crawford made 31 saves and Patrick Sharp scored an early goal into an accidentally unguarded net for the Blackhawks, who took a 3-2 series lead by surviving another night teetering on the smallest margins and mistakes. Ben Bishop stopped 27 shots after missing game four with an undisclosed injury, but the goalie's venture outside the crease led to Sharp's goal.

The first five games have all been decided by one goal for just the second time in Stanley Cup Final history, and the first time in 64 years.

"We're going to carry this momentum," Crawford said. "We're pretty excited about this right now, and [we want to] carry this over to the next game. We don't want to get ahead of us, but it's going to be real exciting going home."