Blackhawks eliminate Flames 4-1

CALGARY, Alberta - Even Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville wondered how his young team would handle the pressure of an elimination game Monday night.

The Hawks handled it the same way they've responded to almost every one of their challenges since October.

Adding another chapter to their storybook season, the Hawks put away the Calgary Flames with a 4-1 victory at the Saddledome, giving them the Western Conference quarterfinal series 4-2.

"It's part of our learning curve being a young team, of finding ways to either win on the road or win a series," Quenneville said.

The victory sends the Hawks into the conference semifinals against the Vancouver Canucks, a series likely to begin Thursday night at GM Place.

"We don't want to stop here," Patrick Kane said.

The Hawks made the most of their 16 shots on goal and watched goalie Nikolai Khabibulin do the rest with 43 saves. He was sensational, particularly in the first two periods when the Flames outshot the Hawks 33-11 but couldn't score.

"That's how he's been all series," captain Jonathan Toews said. "People started saying after Game 3 and Game 4 that he wasn't playing his best hockey, but we still knew he was our best player and he proved that again tonight. We needed him to finish off the series."

The Hawks picked up where they left off in Game 5 and took a 2-0 lead out of the first period despite getting outshot 16-7.

Again it was a foolish penalty by the Flames that got the Hawks started.

Todd Bertuzzi elbowed Brent Seabrook at 1:27 and the Hawks turned it into a 1-0 lead on Kane's power-play goal at 2:20 on a Dustin Byfuglien rebound.

Adam Burish got his first goal of the series at 10:11 to make it 2-0. Byfuglien set it up, speeding wide down the right side, cutting behind the net around defenseman Jordan Leopold and finding Burish cutting down the slot for the shot past Kiprusoff.

It was the Hawks' second goal on just 3 shots.

"Everyone was a part of this," Byfuglien said. "We got through this first series and now we have to get ready for the second one and look at the things we can do better."

Khabibulin was big in the first period with 16 saves. His best came against Olli Jokinen busting in at 13:50 to preserve the 2-goal lead.

Mike Keenan, who may have coached his last game for the Flames, thought his team deserved better.

"We outshot them and out-faceoffed them (61 percent wins)," Keenan said. "Sometimes a goaltender steals a game, and that's what happened."

The Flames threw everything they had at Khabibulin early in the second period and at one point had a 13-1 edge in shots.

But Calgary's momentum was slowed by another penalty, this one for too many men on the ice at 13:31. The Hawks made them pay once more when Brian Campbell ripped a slap shot past Kiprusoff at 14:57 for a 3-0 lead.

The goal was Campbell's first since Dec. 26, a span that included the final 44 regular-season games and the first five in the playoffs.

Bertuzzi's goal 54 seconds into the third period gave the Flames life, but that's as close as they got to the Hawks until the postgame handshakes.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

Three stars

1. Nikolai Khabibulin: Hawks goalie was the difference in the series clincher with 43 saves.

2. Dustin Byfuglien: His 2 assists early helped give the Hawks a quick 2-0 lead. He later added an empty-netter.

3. Brent Seabrook: Capped a terrific series personally with 5 more hits in 26 minutes.

Key stat

The Hawks were 2-for-2 on the power play.

Big hit

Flames defenseman Cory Sarich drilled Martin Havlat in the second period for one of his team's few highlights.

The quote

"We don't want to stop here." - Hawks winger Patrick Kane

Looking ahead

The Hawks move on to the Western Conference semifinals to play the Vancouver Canucks in a series likely to start Thursday night at GM Place.

<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=289613">Images from Blackhawks-Flames Game 6 </a></li> </ul> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=289619">Imrem: Blackhawks take big step with road victory <span class="date">[04/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=289624&src=149">Hawks' Burish says he wasn't told to cool it <span class="date">[04/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=289620&src=149">Flames' Keenan on the hot seat? <span class="date">[04/28/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=289623&src=149">Hawks have their share of hitters, too <span class="date">[04/28/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>