Strategy works to get Hawks back in game

During the opening five minutes Monday night, the question wasn't whether Vancouver would win.

It was how wide the Canucks' Game 2 victory margin would turn out to be.

Vancouver stunned the Hawks and the capacity United Center crowd with 2 goals in the first 5:02. Even more stunning? It could and should have been a lot worse than a 2-0 deficit.

"The first 10 minutes, we generated a lot of scoring chances," Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo said. "It could easily have been 4- or 5-nothing. Then they answered right away with a goal."

Not just any goal.

The Hawks spent the off-day and the morning skate promising to increase the volume of traffic in front of Luongo - and Andrew Ladd stepped forward to become a one-car rush hour.

As Dave Bolland delivered a puck from the back of the net to the front, Ladd crashed the crease and turned it into a four-man pileup that included Luongo and Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa.

With Luongo pinned in the net, the Hawks' Brent Seabrook fired home a shot that gave the hosts their first momentum of the series.

From that point forward, the Hawks were emboldened to attack Luongo further.

Late in the first period, fourth-liners Adam Burish and Ben Eager showed why coach Joel Quenneville transformed them from Game 1 scratches to Game 2 contributors.

After Luongo smothered a slow-moving puck with nobody around him, Burish and Eager rushed in to give him a dramatic double-shot of spray.

"We definitely weren't happy with the first game," Quenneville said. "We liked the energy as we got in that game. I thought we got some good energy out of Benny and 'Bur,' and that line was effective in a lot of ways. They added to the speed of the game."

To accommodate Eager and Burish in the lineup, Quenneville moved Dustin Byfuglien back to defense. That move didn't last long, though, as Byfuglien joined the Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane line midway through the second.

Shortly after the switch, Byfuglien and his 257 pounds charged into the crease full-steam as Luongo parried a sneak attack at the post.

"It was the same thing with the (Los Angeles) series, you know?" said Luongo, referring to Vancouver's first-round victim. "There's guys there. There's contact pretty much every play. You've just got to find ways to fight through that and make saves."

"That's the way it is, man," Luongo added later. "I'm not going to make a story out of it every time. That's the way it is. It's contact. It's the playoffs. What can I tell you?

"Yeah, they (ran me). It didn't really affect me. We were pretty close to winning the game."