Blackhawks start fast, rout Flames

It couldn't have been a more perfect start for the Blackhawks.

The Hawks scored 3 goals in a span of 1:49 midway through the first period Saturday night at the United Center and went on to dump the Calgary Flames 5-1 in Game 5 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

The victory before a pulsating crowd of 22,563 gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series that they now can wrap up with another victory on Monday night in Calgary.

"We've got to go up to a tough spot in Calgary now and try to finish this off," Brent Seabrook said.

The Hawks got momentum early thanks to Calgary penalties. The killer for the Flames was a cross checking penalty by Cory Sarich against Dave Bolland after a whistle at 7:50.

The Hawks retaliated in the form of Seabrook's power-play goal at 9:19, a blast from between the circles past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff on a pass from Martin Havlat.

Havlat finished the game with 2 assists.

"Not the smartest play," Sarich said. "It wasn't a cross check. Still, you can't do that."

The Hawks then got goals from Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg 19 seconds apart off plays to the net.

The Hawks outshot the Flames 15-3 in the first period.

"They really seized the momentum and the opportunity to grab the game," Flames coach Mike Keenan said.

"We were just focused on coming out and playing a good game and playing whistle to whistle," Seabrook said. "We wanted to stay away from that stuff after whistles."

Calgary briefly got back into the game early in the second period on Dustin Boyd's goal at 2:45, but the Hawks wasted little time answering to regain the momentum.

Andrew Ladd jammed a puck past Kiprusoff at 6:14 for a 4-1 lead, ending the goalie's night. Keenan pulled Kiprusoff after the fourth goal on 18 shots and replaced him with Curtis McElhinney.

"To me, that was the big goal of the game," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "The fourth goal was huge."

Cam Barker's goal at 14:56 of the second period through a Dave Bolland screen was his third of the series.

"I liked the response," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Scoring early certainly helped. It was a great first period. I thought we played our best game of the series."

Keenan blamed himself for what happened.

"The team wasn't prepared to play for a number of reasons," Keenan said. "The bottom line is when a team doesn't respond, that's the coach's responsibility. We weren't prepared for the push that we saw from them."

The Hawks did a great defensive job on Jarome Iginla, who wasn't heard from much all night. Iginla was minus-3 and had just 1 shot on goal.

Olli Jokinen was just as invisible and minus-2.

Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin responded from two losses in Calgary with a solid performance with 19 saves.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the team that wins Game 5 in the Stanley Cup playoffs goes on to take the series 80 percent of the time.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

Three stars

1. Brent Seabrook

Scored the Hawks' first goal on a power play, had 2 assists, 5 hits and 2 blocked shots. He set the tone physically starting in the first period.

2. Martin Havlat

Set up 2 goals and seemed to be everywhere offensively early.

3. Cam Barker

Had a goal, 5 shots and a pair of blocked shots.

Key stat

Flames captain Jarome Iginla had 1 shot on goal and was minus-3.

Big hit

Ben Eager slammed Mike Cammalleri into the boards in the third period and touched off a fight with Adam Pardy.

The quote

"The team wasn't prepared to play for a number of reasons." - Flames coach Mike Keenan

Looking ahead

It won't be easy for the Hawks to close out the series Monday in Calgary, where the Sea of Red will be waiting for them in the hostile Saddledome. Game 7 would be at the United Center on Wednesday.

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