Blackhawks tie series with 6-3 win over Canucks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The never-say-die Blackhawks took their game to a special level Saturday night.

Down 2-0 early, the Hawks stormed back with 5 unanswered goals to stun the Vancouver Canucks 6-3 at GM Place to even their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series at a game apiece.

The Hawks have stolen home-ice advantage from the Canucks, with Games 3 and 4 set for the United Center on Tuesday and Thursday. Showing they weren't intimidated in the least by Roberto Luongo, the Hawks turned the game in their favor in the second period by going right after the all-star goaltender with crashing bodies, led by Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Adam Burish.

"I thought some of our bigger guys physically were imposing tonight and really got us going into the game," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We wanted to make them play defense."

For the second game in a row, penalties put the Hawks in an early hole and for the second game in a row they came roaring back. The Canucks led 2-0 after the first period on power-play goals by Sami Salo and Alex Edler, both rockets past Nikolai Khabibulin - Edler's during a two-man advantage.

Salo, however, had to leave the game after the goal with what was believed to be a back injury and the Hawks took advantage of the Canucks being without perhaps their best defenseman. The Hawks cranked their game to dominating midway through the second period moments after Khabibulin stopped Alex Burrows busting in - a key save considering it could have been 3-0.

"Scoring after that big save was important for us," Quenneville said. "We got some momentum off it as well."

The Hawks could have been disheartened after a remarkable lunging stick save by Luongo on Ben Eager at 9:16 of the second period, but they weren't and kept going hard to the net. Patrick Sharp scored on a Matt Walker rebound at 10:24 with Burish and Ladd jamming the net.

Just over a minute later, Byfuglien made a great play busting to the net and getting hooked by defenseman Kevin Bieksa before plowing into Luongo. A delay of game penalty to Willie Mitchell gave the Hawks a two-man advantage.

Sharp got his second goal of the period at 13:30, a blast past Luongo through more traffic. A hooking penalty to Patrick Kane at 15:54 could have given the momentum back to the Canucks, but instead the Hawks scored short-handed to go ahead 3-2. Duncan Keith lifted a pass out of his own end on the fly down the middle of the ice to Dave Bolland, who grabbed it out of the air at the Vancouver blue line for a breakaway.

Bolland put the sweetest deke on Luongo for the goal at 16:50.

"Dunc told me he didn't see me, but it worked out great," Bolland said. "I think their defenseman cheated, thinking Dunc was going to take it down the wall."

The Hawks didn't let up coming out for the third period. They went ahead 4-2 at the 2:13 mark when Eager cut to the net and scored on a feed from Burish. It became 5-2 at 5:48 when Patrick Kane took a pass from Jonathan Toews coming out of the left corner and slipped a backhander under Luongo.

Bolland added an empty-netter in the final minute.

"We feel good stealing a game in their building, but by no means are we looking too far ahead past Game 3," Sharp said.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

Three stars

1. Patrick Sharp: His 2 goals in the second period started the Hawks back from their 2-0 deficit.

2. Brent Seabrook: Hawks' best defenseman in the playoffs was everywhere again, playing 27 minutes with an assist and 2 blocked shots.

3. Dustin Byfuglien: The big winger didn't have a point, but he helped turn the game around in the second period with his strong plays to the net.

Key stat

The Hawks outshot the Canucks 32-21.

Key moment

Nikolai Khabibulin's point-black save on Alex Burrows early in the second period. With the Canucks already ahead 2-0, that could have put the game away.

Big hit

Pick any of the 5 delivered by Dustin Byfuglien.

Looking ahead

With the best-of-seven series tied at 1-1, how amped up is the United Center going to be for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday?

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="/story/?id=290904">Images from the Hawks' Game 2 win </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=290924">Kane gets the last laugh vs. Canucks <span class="date">[05/03/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=290879&src=149">Versteeg wants to know: Where's Coach Q? <span class="date">[05/02/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=290880&src=149">No contest in this matchup of goalies <span class="date">[05/02/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>