Just one game last night, so I see no need to do an intro with a jump.
G1: Canucks 5, Blackhawks 3 (VAN leads 1-0)
Early on, this appeared to be going the same way three of Vancouver's four wins in the first round went. the Sedins chip in some assists, Luongo and the defense stay strong at the other end, Vancouver wins.
And the Canucks played that to a tee in building a 3-0 lead over Chicago in the first two periods. But then came the third period when the Hawks stormed back to win the territorial battle. And subsequently, they got a couple of goals from Patrick Kane in the first 10 minutes of the period, one of which came off a Brent Seabrook point shot on the power play. Then Dave Bolland tied it up from in close.
But as well as the Hawks played in those first 14 minutes of the third to get the equalizing three goals, they gave it right back up in the final two minutes with a little over exhuberance in
From looking at the replay of the game highlights, it appeared there were some tired legs on the Hawks as Cam Barker really labored to get back after getting caught deep in Vancouver's zone. When he finally did get back, he proceeded to slide into his goaltender in an attempt to poke check the puck away from Sami Salo, who scored the game winner.
Thing is, you look at the shift chart and you see that Barker had only been out there about 30 seconds when the goal was scored. It was Kris Versteeg and Kane that overstayed their shift, logging 1:13 of ice time on the shift preceding Salo's goal. And it was those two along with Marty Havlat that appeared to get in a little too deep to the Vancouver zone and were late in reacting to the odd man rush coming back the other way.
Ryan Johnson iced the game with an empty netter with 16 seconds left.
And thus, a lesson is taught to these young Hawks in the playoffs. When you're in tied game late, simplify things. Don't overstay shifts and make sure you have your head on a swivel.
And from a big picture perspective, STOP TAKING MINDLESS PENALTIES!!
Chicago took seven minors in this game. At least five of them fall into this aforementioned category.
First, Andrew Ladd allowed his stick to ride up right into Kyle Wellwood's face drawing blood and a double minor. In the second, Kane did the same thing to Wellwood. Earlier in the period, Ben Eager took an idiotic roughing penalty against Vancouver's Rick Rypien in the neutral zone well after Rypien had dumped the puck into the Chicago zone.
Five calls right there, my friends. You simply cannot do that against a club that has the talent that Vancouver has in the Sedin twins, Mattias Ohlund, Ryan Kesler, and Alex Burrows.