BLACKHAWKS WIN IN OT TO EVEN SERIES WITH CANUCKS

For 56 minutes of Thursday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Vancouver Canucks were clicking on all cylinders defensively.  They had done a good job limiting transition scoring opportunities for the speedy Blackhawks’ offense, and goaltender Roberto Luongo looked to be in great form as he looked to complete a shutout victory.  In a matter of minutes, the Canucks’ luck changed completely as Chicago’s Martin Havlat tied the game with less than three minutes to play in regulation and Andrew Ladd netted the game winner at 2:52 of overtime to give the Blackhawks an improbable 2-1 victory.  The series is now tied at 2-2 with game five slated for Saturday night at Vancouver’s GM Place.

Both defenses put in stellar performances, with the Blackhawks limiting Vancouver to only 15 shots on goal for the game.  Chicago managed 28 shots against Roberto Luongo, but that was way down from their regular season averages.  After a scoreless first period, Darcy Hordichuk scored at 8:32 of the second to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead that they’d take deep into the game.  Martin Havlat’s goal at 17:16 assisted by Andrew Ladd and Dave Bolland would tie the score at 1-1 and send the contest to overtime.  Havlat and Boland would set up Ladd for the game winner just 2:52 into the extra session.  The 2-1 victory was Chicago’s sixth win of the postseason after posting just a single victory during the previous eleven years.

While bettors who laid the -160 with the home team managed to cash their tickets, the game does illustrate the risk of backing ‘chalk’ during the NHL playoffs.  Over the long term, once the game goes to overtime it becomes essentially a ‘coin flip’ statistically.  Obviously laying -160 on one side of a 50/50 proposition isn’t a profitable scenario in the long haul.  Further demonstrating the futility of simply playing the home team as a sports betting strategy is that fact that a hypothetical bettor who backed the home team in each game is now down a full unit despite a 2-2 split in the W/L column.

The game was the second in the series to go UNDER the posted total (5) after the first two games in Vancouver went OVER.   In ten postseason games to date, the Blackhawks have evenly split OVERs and UNDERs.  Vancouver, meanwhile, has only two OVERs in eight postseason games (4 UNDER, 2 push).  While it’s tough to go under the low totals posted in the playoffs, with both teams effectively limiting each other on offense and two solid goaltenders between the pipes that looks to be the right way to play the totals in this series.

There’s every indication that this series will continue to be a hard fought and closely contested affair.  Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville suggested that the game four win was crucial for his team to have a chance in the series:

"A huge comeback for us. We're right back in the series now. It looked grim, but the enthusiasm was in the right places."

Saturday’s game five has been opened with the Vancouver Canucks a -150 home favorite.  The total has been posted at 5 OV -115.  Game six will be back in Chicago on Monday with game seven, if necessary, on the Canucks’ home ice Thursday night.