Flames could lose Phaneuf for Game 6 due to injury

Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf is day-to-day and questionable for Game 6 tonight with an undisclosed injury, coach Mike Keenan said Sunday.

Phaneuf left Saturday's 5-1 loss to the Blackhawks with either a head or shoulder problem after being hit by Troy Brouwer.

Phaneuf is the latest Calgary player to get banged up in the series, joining Craig Conroy, Rene Bourque, Daymond Langkow and Curtis Glencross.

Neither team practiced on Sunday, with only the Flames available to the media at the Saddledome. Keenan was short in his chat with reporters when asked what he expected from his team in Game 6.

"To be prepared to play to their level of ability and expectations," he said.

Keenan was asked about captain Jarome Iginla, who was minus-3 with 1 shot and called his own play "terrible" in the Game 5 loss.

"Well, we expect a lot more," Keenan said. "I'm sure he expects a lot more from him."

Keenan got testy when pressed about Iginla.

"You can ask him about that," Keenan said. "I'm not going to berate an individual at this time of year. He said it himself. You asked me, 'Should he be better.' He said he should be better. I agree with him."

Home cooking: So far in the series between the Hawks and Flames, home ice has meant everything.

Both teams have distinctive home-ice advantages, which goes a long way in explaining why the home clubs have won the first five games.

The pressure of ending that trend falls on the Hawks tonight, but they know winning in the Saddledome to end the series won't be an easy trick.

"The Calgary building is as loud as you can get," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "You have a hard time calling out line combinations."

The Hawks dropped Games 3 and 4 in Calgary, but the result was still up for grabs in the third period.

"We found our how tough it is in Calgary," Quenneville said. "The building is going to be alive again. Their sense of playoff hockey is real, so we know the challenge we're facing in there, and how tough it is. If we can learn from the past six period there, we know we're going to have to play our best game."

The Hawks credited the raucous crowd at the United Center on Saturday with playing a key role in 5-1 victory.

"It was like having a sixth man out there," Brent Seabrook said.

"We wanted to recapture the momentum and the crowd helped elevate the energy in the building," Quenneville said. "It was frantic and scoring early certainly helped. We certainly took advantage of the enthusiasm of our crowd."

Advantage, Quenneville: It has been obvious from Game 1 that one of Mike Keenan's tactics for the series was to try to rough up the young Hawks after whistles in an attempt to get them off their game.

It hasn't worked through five games.

"Discipline is always a factor, initiating and not retaliating," Joel Quenneville said. "It's the purpose and mindset of our team. We've done a nice job staying out of the penalty box."

The Hawks have retaliated in the best way possible in the last two games, by scoring 3 power-play goals.

"You've got to take advantage of those power plays because you don't know how many you're going to get," Kris Versteeg said. "So when you get one early you got to jump in there and make it happen."