It’s no secret that Jonathan Toews is one of the top young captains in the league. His hat trick and 5 points on Friday night in Vancouver helped the Blackhawks jump to a 3-1 series lead over the Canucks. Antti Niemi made 26 saves for the Hawks, and the Blackhawks played another perfect game of physical aggression and scoring brilliance to put a stranglehold on this series.
A huge part of the win was Chicago’s success on the powerplay. The Blackhawks went 4-for-8 with the man advantage, including all 3 of Toews’ goals. Brent Seabrook opened the scoring on Chicago’s first shot of the game, but just over a minute later, the puck deflected in off of Kyle Wellwood’s skate to tie the game at 1-1. Dustin Byfuglien was back on the top line with Kane and Toews again, and was right in Luongo’s face when Toews fired a wrist shot from the slot. Danny Sedin got the Canucks even heading into the 2nd, though, as he trailed a Vancouver rush and flipped a rebound over Niemi.
Toews got Chicago back in front just 27 seconds into the 2nd period, stuffing a loose puck through Luongo’s five hole. Patrick Sharp stretched the lead to two on another Chicago powerplay, as he came away from a scrum in front of the net unguarded and lobbed a loose puck into the open net with Luongo sprawled on the ice. Toews put Chicago up by 3 on another powerplay late in the 2nd, as he took a great centering pass from Dave Bolland and snapped it in under the crossbar. Alex Edler shot a little bit of life into the Canucks with a powerplay goal in the last 2 minutes of the period, but it wasn’t enough to get Vancouver back in this one.
Tomas Kopecky scored his 3rd goal of the playoffs 7 minutes into the 3rd, finding himself in perfect position to corral a rebound off Marian Hossa’s shot and put Chicago back up by 3. Regular season scoring leader Henrik Sedin also scored his 3rd goal of the playoffs, stuffing a quick redirect through the crease late in the 3rd, but an empty netter from Dave Bolland sealed the Canucks’ fate.
After winning Game 1 in surprisingly impressive fashion, the Canucks certainly didn’t expect to get run out of their own building in back to back games. Chicago dominated play in both games at GM Place, and Roberto Luongo has now given up 16 goals in the last 3 games. For a team that many had picked to come out of the Western Conference at the start of the season, the Canucks have some serious work ahead of them if they wish to keep their Cup dreams alive.
