VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Chicago Blackhawks played only one good quality period in the first game against the Vancouver Canucks. It was a game where they played hard enough to win only to see a loss. Chicago was penalized enough they couldn’t get into any type of flow to produce scoring opportunities.
Game 2’s start was no different for the team with Vancouver scoring two goals in the first period on three power play opportunities to put Chicago down going into the second. But the Blackhawks turned it around with two great periods to win 6-3 to take the series back to Chicago. This was the first lost for the Canucks in the playoffs after winning five straight.
In the first period at the 5:35 mark Sami Salo fired a slap shot after receiving the puck from Henrik Sedin who was down low for the first goal of the game. Vancouver was on the power play again a little over a minute after the first goal with an almost identical play but this was at the far lane compared to the slot. After a few passes back and forth with no pressure, Mats Sundin passed one last time to Alexander Elder for the shot in goal.
The ‘Hawks were pretty sharp in the second. Matt Walker fired a shot from the far point that rebounded short in traffic then deflected off Adam Burish and rebounded off Roberto Luongo. Patrick Sharp was able to corral the puck and got it in between Luongo’s pads at 10:24 into the period.
Vancouver’s Willie Mitchell took a bad delay of game penalty and Chicago took advantage. The call put the Canucks two men down and while killing the penalty Ryan Kesler broke his stick during the sequence. Kesler was not able to get off the ice since the bench was on the far end leaving the Canucks in dire trouble. Sharp made the Canucks pay when he fired a one-timer from Brent Seabrook to tie the game up at two goals apiece.
Now it was the Canucks turn on the power play but even that turned out poorly for them. Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith lifted a long pass over to Dave Bolland at the blue line and Bolland took the puck in and froze Luongo for a second before pulling the puck in around the goaltender to give Chicago a 3-2 lead.
Chicago continued to pressure in the third and it would be the fourth liners that got the notch on the score sheet. Adam Burish charged towards the net holding off a Canucks defender with one hand while stick-handling the puck with the other. Burish got the puck deep into the Vancouver zone and passed to Ben Eager. Eager, who was positioned just in front of the net got the goal as Luongo was still following Burish.
After the depth players scored Chicago’s top line finally got into the scoring. As both teams fought for control of the puck in the Vancouver zone Chicago team captain Jonathan Toews had the puck and drew three defenders towards him. Toews moves left Patrick Kane alone down low. Toews snapped the puck to Kane who scored an easy goal.
Later on in the period the Canucks tried to make a game of it but it was too little too late. On the power play, Henrik Sedin scored as he played tight on ‘Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin while receiving a pass across the crease from Sundin. Luongo was pulled with about two and a half minutes left in the game but it was Bolland who scored again into an empty-net with 1:10 left to put the game out of reach.
Notes
Frustration played in the third as 15 of the game’s 27 penalties were called in that frame. Khabiblulin faced just 21 shots to Luongo’s 32. The second period was the key as the ‘Hawks got 13 shots to the Canuck’s five while converting on three. Three of Vancouver’s antagonistic players from Game 1 were pretty quiet. Salo got the first goal and was pretty quiet for the rest of the night, Kyle Wellwood’s name was never called and Mitchell was put in his place as he went a minus-3 for the game.
Chicago Blackhawks Head Coach Joel Quenneville must be a master at switching the lineups at the right time as it paid off in the third period in Game 1 to put the team back in the game. In the second game Quenneville made changes after the first two goals that settled his team down. The changes allowed his team to pick up momentum going into the final forty minutes of the game. The line changes allowed the team to adjust and gave the team great scoring depth as the fourth line.
With the win tonight, home ice now shifts to the ‘Hawks as Game 3 goes to the United Center on Tuesday night. It will be important for Chicago to play well to keep their fans into the game. With their strong second period in Game 2 they essentially took the Vancouver crowd out of the game.
Contact the author at matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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