BLACKHAWKS ROUT CANUCKS TO EVEN SERIES

Eventually, the Vancouver Canucks will learn that it’s never safe to assume that the Chicago Blackhawks are finished.  The Blackhawks are the NHL’s equivalent of the hockey masked villain from the “Friday the 13^th” horror movie series—just when you think he’s dead, he rises from the lake brandishing his scimitar ready to inflict more damage.  On Saturday, the Blackhawks did the same thing to the Canucks in game #2 of their Western Conference Semifinal series—only without the scimitar.  Down 2-0 at the end of the first period, Chicago roared back to life with five unanswered goals en route to a 6-3 victory over the Canucks.  The win ties the best of seven series at 1-1, with the next two games set for Chicago starting on Tuesday night.

The Canucks *should* have learned their lesson in game one, when they blew a 3-0 lead in the third period but managed to prevail.  The second game hopefully underscores the fact that they’ll need a sixty minute effort to beat the plucky young Blackhawks.  Things started well enough for Vancouver, as they scored two goals early in the first period.  Sami Salo tallied the first at 5:35 of the first on the power play, assisted by Henrik and Daniel Sedin.  Alexander Edler made it 2-0 just over a minute later with his power play goal set up by Mats Sundin and Kevin Bieksa.  Vancouver would take this two goal lead—and a false sense of security—into the dressing room at the end of the first period.

Chicago would start their comeback at 10:24 of the second period, as Patrick Sharp scored from Adam Burish and Matt Walker to cut the Canucks lead to 3-1.  Sharp would strike again just over three minutes later, this time on the power play assisted by Brent Seabrook and Patrick Kane.  Dave Bolland would give the Blackhawks their first lead of the game with his shorthanded goal at 16:50 set up by Duncan Keith, and the second period would end with Chicago holding a 3-2 advantage.

They wouldn’t sit on this one goal lead, however, as Ben Eager would score from Adam Burish at 2:13 of the final period to push the Hawks’ advantage to two goals at 4-2.  Patrick Kane’s goal at 5:48  assisted by Jonathan Toews and Troy Brouwer would be the Blackhawks fifth unanswered score and give them a 5-2 lead.  The Canucks would finally respond, though it was too little too late, as Henrik Sedin scored on the power play with less than three minutes remaining in the game assisted by Mats Sundin and Alexander Edler.  The Blackhawks would punctuate the victory with Dave Bolland’s unassisted goal into an empty net at 18:50, producing the final 6-3 margin.

After the game, Hawk’s captain Jonathan Toews explained his team’s mindset down 2-0 at the end of the first period:

"It's always a long ways from being done, especially when we're only down by two goals and we know we haven't played our best hockey yet. Once we get that first goal it's a confidence boost and every line feels they can go out and score."

Added two goal scorer Patrick Sharp:

"We're a confident team and we know despite the score we're still in any hockey game. It's nice to have the ability to come back again."

The game also figured significantly for both goalies—it was Blackhawks’ goalie Nikolai Khabibulin’s first ever victory over Vancouver as he entered the night with an 0-10-2 career mark against the Canucks.  For losing netminder Roberto Luongo, the five goals against were the most he’d ever given up during a playoff game and equaled the goals scored against him during the entire opening round series against St. Louis.  Still, he shrugged off the bad night with this postgame comment:

"I didn't expect to win every game. Those guys are a good team too and they’re going to win games.”

Despite his confidence, Luongo’s form has to be a concern for the Canucks heading into game three.  After playing so well late in the season and through the first round of the playoffs, he’s now allowed 8 goals in his last four periods of hockey.