Sizzling Hawks stomp Flyers from the get-go

For the first time in this series, the Blackhawks played like Stanley Cup champs Sunday night.

If they can do it again Wednesday, they will be.

The Hawks came out and completely dominated the Flyers in the first period of Game 5, taking a 3-0 lead, and then traded goals the rest of the way before settling for a 7-4 victory at the UC, taking a 3-2 advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals.

After 2 straight defeats in which they lacked the energy that got them to the Finals, the Hawks came out Sunday on fire, outshooting, out-chancing and - most important - outworking the Flyers from the opening minute to the final horn.

And now the dream of a Stanley Cup, some 49 years in the making, is a single, 60-minute victory away.

"We have a great opportunity, but at the same time we can't think about the end result,'' said Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith. "All we can think about is the first shift of the next game.

"We've seen what can happen when we get ahead of ourselves.''

The Hawks thought this would be easy after winning the first two at home, but in Philadelphia they got caught spectating and got a wake-up call from a team that refuses to go away, no matter how big the deficit or how daunting the task.

On Sunday, however, they played with a desperation that impressed even the Flyers.

"Give them credit. They worked harder than we did,'' said Flyers forward Ville Leino. "They were ready to play and we weren't.''

The Hawks were looking for some breaks after a couple of games in which they couldn't get one, and that all changed with a couple bounces off Flyers skates that gave them a 2-0 lead.

A third came off a screen, which prompted Peter Laviolette to foolishly pull Mike Leighton in favor of Brian Boucher after a period.

Leighton was brilliant the first 12 minutes when the Hawks could have easily been up 3 or 4, and it was hard to find fault with his game, while Boucher did nothing to stem the tide.

And it was good that the Hawks got to the Flyers early because four times the Flyers cut the 3-goal lead to a pair, and they had numerous chances to get within a goal, but on this night the Hawks kept forcing the play and each time they extended the lead to 3.

"That was as ugly as the first game,'' said defenseman Brian Campbell. "It's a good thing we got off to a good start, but that's something we said we wanted to do.

"We wanted to feed off the crowd and get that jump.''

After spending a week complaining about the officiating, the Hawks got what they were looking for, which was more power plays, a couple power-play goals, a delayed call on which they scored, and the refs looking the other way a couple times that kept the Hawks out of the box.

But the Hawks dominated Game 5 in every way and could have won this one without any help or luck, and they head back to Philadelphia for Game 6 with the confidence and momentum that was missing even when they went East last week with a 2-0 lead.

Key was Dustin Byfuglien showing up for the first time in the series both physically and on the score sheet, Patrick Kane finding room to skate, and Joel Quenneville's magical line juggling that stamped a minus-5 on Chris Pronger's forehead.

"Give Joel credit,'' said Patrick Sharp. "He has a great feel for mixing and matching lines, and he's been brilliant throughout the playoffs. He's got us close now.''

Close indeed. In the history of seven-game Finals, with the series tied 2-2 the club winning Game 5 has won the Stanley Cup 14 of 20 times.

"It's exciting,'' said Kane. "One more win and we got the grand prize.''

Fifteen down, one to go.