CANUCKS SURVIVE BLACKHAWKS’ COMEBACK TO TAKE GAME ONE

The Vancouver Canucks swept the St. Louis Blues in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the primary reason for the 4-0 victory was the outstanding goaltending of Roberto Luongo.  In the first game of their Conference semifinal series against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night at Vancouver’s GM Place it was more of the same—for two periods, at least.  After opening a 3-0 lead heading into the final twenty minutes of play, the Blackhawks tied the game with a furious third period comeback.  The Canucks needed some late game heroics from Sami Salo, but in the end were able to prevail 5-3 and take a 1-0 lead in the best of seven set.

Vancouver not only took a 3-0 lead over the first two periods, but limited the Blackhawks to 16 shots on goal in the process.  Pavol Demitra made it 1-0 late in the first period with his power play goal assisted by Mats Sundin and Kyle Wellwood.  Henrik Sedin would increase the Canucks lead to 2-0 at 5:13 of the second period with assists to his brother Daniel Sedin and Steve Bernier.  Ryan Kessler would push the Vancouver advantage to 3-0 at 15:23 of the frame assisted by Kyle Wellwood and Alexander Edler. 

Things really got crazy in the third period.  Chicago’s Patrick Kane scored just over a minute in to the final period assisted by Martin Havlat and Duncan Keith to cut the Vancouver lead to 3-1.  Just over ten minutes later, Kane scored again—this time on the power play—assisted by Brent Seabrook and Kris Versteeg to make it a one goal game.  Dave Bolland then completed the comeback with his goal at 14:31 set up by Duncan Keith and Ben Eager to tie the contest at 3-3.  At 18:47, Vancouver’s Sami Salo would bail his team out with his goal assisted by Steve Bernier and Mason Raymond.  Ryan Johnson would add an empty net goal in the game’s waning seconds and the Canucks escaped with a game one victory despite blowing a three goal lead.

After the game, Patrick Kane said that the Canucks’ superior offensive firepower made them a more formidable challenge than first round foe Calgary:

"We had a great third period to start off. One mistake and it ends up in the back of your net. It's not going to be as easy as Calgary. They're a faster-paced team and we've got to keep up with them.”

The Blackhawks also have to hope that the Canucks aren’t already ‘in the head’ of their goalie, Nikolai Khabibulin.  Khabibulin hasn’t beaten the Canucks in over a decade, posting a 0-10-2 mark since his last win on January 26, 1998.  The Canucks, meanwhile, became only the fourth team in NHL playoff history to blow a three goal lead in the third period and still win in regulation. 

Game two will be back at Vancouver’s GM Place on Saturday night, with the series shifting to Chicago for games three and four on Tuesday and Thursday of next week.