Pronger key factor - in helping Hawks get win

Chris Pronger was praised to the heavens for his performance in the first four games of the Stanley Cup Finals.

But Blackhawks fans came to haze, not praise, the Philadelphia defenseman on Sunday night - and they received more ammunition than they dreamed possible.

The sellout crowd settled initially for booing the Philadelphia defenseman whenever he touched the puck, but Pronger developed into one of the primary victims of the Hawks' 7-4 Game 5 victory.

Pronger, who entered the night leading everyone with a plus-8 in the Finals, finished an astonishing minus-5 during the contest. He was on the ice for 6 Hawks goals - and his penalty set up the seventh.

Pronger's issues started with the game scoreless and the Flyers breathing sighs of relief after fending off an early Hawks barrage.

But 12:17 into the first period, Brent Seabrook flung a shot off the inside of Pronger's left skate that changed the angle enough to give Michael Leighton no chance to stop it.

"The first period we didn't get much of a forecheck," Pronger said. "Subsequently, we were in our own end. It was just a matter of time. Staving off, staving off, eventually they're going to get to you. And they did."

Then, with the tension rising late in the second period and the Flyers sitting within 4-2, Pronger was whistled for hooking Patrick Kane as he tried to spin away from his long-armed clutches.

When the JumboTron showed a closeup of Pronger accepting his seat in the penalty box with 4:43 left in the second, several fans in the 300-level seats took the opportunity to make an obscene gesture in the JumboTron's direction.

While that might have been cathartic, the fans felt even better 28 seconds later when Dustin Byfuglien turned Pronger's misdemeanor into a power-play goal that gave the Hawks a 5-2 working margin.

By that time, Leighton was long gone from the game.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette pulled Leighton after the first period with the Hawks leading 3-0. Leighton took a puck off the knee during pregame warm-up, but said that wasn't an issue during the game.

"It hurt when I did it, but I shook it off," Leighton said. "The second goal, I wasn't too happy with. It bounced off the boards and (Dave Bolland) tapped it off my skate and in. That was the only one I was upset about."

Laviolette didn't have an answer when asked whether Leighton or backup Brian Boucher would start Game 6.

The coach seemed more concerned about center Danny Briere's injury. With 9:54 to play, he took a Duncan Keith stick below his right eye that produced a bloody mess. Keith went unpenalized just as the Flyers' Simon Gagne escaped after slashing the Hawks' Brian Campbell in the face late in the second.

"It's a penalty," Laviolette said of Keith's maneuver. "Possibly a major."

But nobody in the Flyers' locker room worried about Pronger's psyche - and not just because the Hawks' Ben Eager make a big demonstration of picking the puck off the ice as time expired.

That was Pronger's pet move after the Hawks' victories in Games 1 and 2. "He's a true pro," Boucher said. "I'm not worried about Prongs."