Hawks come up empty against Luongo
Nobody on the Vancouver Canucks could accuse the Blackhawks of running up the score this time.
One team showed up for Friday's rivalry game, but it wasn't the Hawks.
Despite putting 32 shots on Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, the fire wasn't there up and down the lineup in a 3-0 loss to Vancouver at the United Center.
Over is the Hawks' modest three-game winning streak while they fell back to 6-8 on home ice.
Last season the Hawks lost eight games in regulation all season at the United Center.
“It just didn't look like we had enough energy and enough jump to our game out there,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “Anything they threw at us it's like we were just going to let them have it.”
Luongo saw everything the Hawks put at him in one of the easier games he's had in Chicago over the last three seasons.
Luongo was good not great in the Canucks' first win over the Hawks this season after 2 losses.
“He flashed the leather a few times and made it look pretty,” Toews said. “Obviously if their team is going to win they need him to make some big stops and he definitely did that tonight.
“We just have to make it harder on him. When we've had success against this team, that's what we've done well. Obviously we didn't do that well enough tonight.”
The Hawks were 0-for-4 on the power play and missed several great chances. The biggest miss was by Tomas Kopecky in the third period with an open net when a goal there would have made it 1-1.
“I'm really frustrated right now, especially with myself,” Kopecky said. “I missed that empty net and it would be a total different game. Then I took a penalty and they scored.
“They played the exact game that we're supposed to play, simple and ugly, but they come out with the win.”
Luongo was at his best in the second period when he made three good stops on Patrick Sharp, Patrick Kane and Kopecky in the last 12 minutes.
After the saves on Sharp and Kane, the Canucks broke a scoreless tie on a goal by fourth liner Tanner Glass off a scramble at 11:18 that resulted from a John Scott turnover.
The Canucks made it 2-0 at 5:06 of the third period on Christian Ehrhoff's power-play goal with Kopecky serving a boarding penalty.
The goal came moments after the Hawks failed on a power play that included 15 seconds of a 5-on-3.
“We had some power-play chances and missed some high-quality chances,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
Hawks goalie Marty Turco faced only 18 shots in his first start since Nov. 24 and couldn't be faulted on any of the goals.
“We could have probably been a little more physical and maybe had a couple less turnovers, but for the most part shots against were way down and that's what we're looking for,” Turco said. “We had ample chances to score, but Lungo made some great saves at the other end.”
<P><B>Tim Sassone's game tracker</B> </P>
<P>Canucks 3, Blackhawks 0</P>
<P><B>Three stars</B></P>
<P>1. Roberto Luongo, Canucks: Made 32 saves, including 14 in the first period.</P>
<P>2. Christian Ehrhoff, Canucks: Scored a power-play goal and played 23 solid minutes.</P>
<P>3. Tanner Glass, Canucks: Fourth liner got the game's biggest goal when he opened the scoring.</P>
<P><B>By the numbers</B></P>
<P>Not only did the Hawks have 32 shots on goal, the Canucks blocked 19 more shots, including 6 by defenseman Keith Ballard. The Hawks were credited with 29 hits to Vancouver's 28 in a generous bit of stat keeping.</P>