Blackhawks rout Canucks, return to West finals

The last thing the Blackhawks wanted to do was roll the dice in a Game 7 against the Vancouver Canucks, and it showed Tuesday night.

Playing as if it were their backs against the wall, the Hawks turned in one of their best efforts of the playoffs in a 5-1 win at GM Place that sent them to the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row.

Now it's the series everyone wanted to see: the Hawks the and San Jose Sharks, the two best teams in the West all season, for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Finals.

"Let's just enjoy this and then we'll worry about San Jose," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

After wasting a chance Sunday to get rid of the Canucks in five games, the Hawks cranked up their game in Game 6 to win the best-of-seven West semifinal series 4-2.

"Every time you've got a chance to finish a team off you've got to act like it's your last game as well," Hawks center John Madden said.

After a scoreless first period the Hawks exploded for 3 goals in the second, the crusher being Dave Bolland's short-handed tally with 45 seconds left before intermission.

Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg scored 36 seconds apart early in the period.

Then after the Canucks crept within 3-1 early in the third, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien scored 25 seconds apart midway through the period to seal the deal.

The Hawks had the start they wanted, but it was a first period dominated by goalies Roberto Luongo and Antti Niemi.

"We got some timely goals and timely goaltending," Versteeg said.

While Sami Salo was able to play despite the groin injury he suffered in Game 5, the Canucks lost defenseman Alex Edler at 16:36 of the first period when he was absolutely crushed into the boards by Byfuglien in what probably was the biggest hit of the series.

Byfuglien finished with a goal and an assist in another huge effort at GM Place.

"There's something about this place that gets me going and fires me up; I don't know if it's the fans or what," Byfyglien said. "It's been my goal since the start of the series to create some traffic and bang."

Without Edler the Canucks had to go the rest of the way with five defensemen, and one of them was Salo, who was noticeably slower because of his groin problem.

"Throughout the series they came at us real hard and made us pay a price," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "They came at our defense hard and obviously it took its toll."

The Hawks scored 17 goals in their 3 wins in Vancouver, eliminating the Canucks on the same date they did last spring.

"It's very disappointing we couldn't get it done for the second year in a row," Vigneault said. "Obviously they're an elite team."

The second period was all Hawks with Brouwer and Versteeg getting it going early.

Brouwer, making his return to the lineup after three games as a healthy scratch, scored his first goal of the playoffs at the two-minute mark on a feed from Sharp after Brent Sopel made a good play in his own end to get the puck out.

"I thought we had way more pace than we had all series," Quenneville said.

Versteeg turned a Kevin Bieksa turnover into a 2-0 load 36 seconds later, keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 and snapping a shot past Luongo.

Bolland's goal came after he picked off a pass by Pavol Demitra, shook off a check from the blue line in and put the puck through Luongo.

"That was a real tough one," Vigneault said. "That was definitely a big moment in today's game."