With 'chips on the line,' Vancouver refuses to bust

How do the Hawks knock out a conundrum like Vancouver?

Earlier in the week when the Canucks didn't face elimination from this Western Conference semifinal, they played with a recklessness that smacked of desperation.

But when Vancouver had its back to the wall for Game 5 on Sunday night - and the 22,192 inside United Center and everyone else in North America expected the Canucks to take their ragged play to a new low - Alain Vigneault's squad zagged the other way.

Stabilized by Christian Ehrhoff's goal in the opening minute, the Canucks chilled their way back into the series with a 4-1 road triumph.

"Sometimes when all the chips are on the line, you tend to be a little more careful," said Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, who allowed precious few rebounds among his 29 saves. "You don't want to be making that huge mistake and maybe costing the game. Whatever it was, it worked for us."

Here's what it was: Unprecedented discipline.

After going through warmups without wearing helmets - a new bit of devil-may-care team-building - the Canucks reined it in when the puck dropped and revealed their game consists of more than head-scratching (and hair-pulling) penalties.

After taking three roughing calls, three cross-checking penalties and two 10-minute misconducts during their Game 3 and 4 losses, the Canucks had just one roughing penalty in Game 5.

And that was a quick shoving match between Shane O'Brien and the Hawks' Ben Eager that sent them both off in the third period. In total, the Hawks had just 7 minutes and 42 seconds of 5-on-4 action and took advantage of none of it. "The two games in Vancouver, obviously, our emotions in some situations got the best of us," Vigneault said.

"We've got a smart group. We might not have shown it the proper way in those two games, but tonight we did."

The visitors wasted no time on retaliatory tactics or Dustin Byfuglien bashing, though they had chances to play unintelligently.

Early in the second period with the Hawks on the power play, Byfuglien knocked Canucks center Ryan Johnson on his butt legally as they jostled for position on a puck near the corner. Johnson got up and kept playing without a hint of malice in his body language.

Then, with 8:30 left in the period, primary Vancouver nutball O'Brien bled all over the ice after Byfuglien followed through on a shot and gouged him across the bridge of his nose. Nobody took a run at Byfuglien for the inadvertent play and risk the Hawks cutting into their 2-0 deficit.

"I was a little surprised there was no penalty," said O'Brien, who needed 6 stitches to close the wound. "But that's part of the whole composure thing and moving forward."