Antics by Burish, Eager keep Blackhawks loose

The return of Adam Burish and Ben Eager to the lineup Monday night brought just the spark Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville was seeking.

"We were happy to get them both back in there," Quenneville said. "That speed and physicality they bring is important."

In addition to pleasing their coach, the pair entertained the United Center crowd by chirping from the bench at Vancouver's Alex Burrows, an exchange caught live on the Jumbotron over center ice. They also elicited a few laughs from teammates after performing an artistic snow job on Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, spraying him in unison as he went down to cover a loose puck.

"Well you've got to stop, you're not allowed to hit the goaltender, so those guys had to stop right away," defenseman Brian Campbell said with a grin. "Besides, you can't really move the spray out of the way.

"I definitely heard a warning from the ref. He came to me after and told me to pass the message along to the two culprits."

Just another reason teammates feed off Burish and Eager.

"We love having those guys around and in the lineup," said Campbell. "Seeing that ... there was a little chuckle."

Steeg is the champ: Thanks to scoring the game-winning goal on what was his second chance of the cycle, forward Kris Versteeg is now the proud owner of the championship wrestling belt Hawks players hand out after victories.

The previous owner of the belt, Patrick Sharp, made the presentation.

"He's a hard worker," Sharp said. "It's nice to see him get his first goal (in the playoffs)."

Time to kill: Though they allowed an early 5-on-3 goal, the Hawks were stellar on the penalty kill Monday, stopping all of Vancouver's power play chances the rest of the game.

"We can still pressure a little bit better," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "Especially the twins (Vancouver's Henrik and Daniel Sedin); those two guys love to buy time and look at different options. So the less time you give them, the less dangerous they are."

It seemed to work to perfection.

"Our power-play didn't deliver the way we wanted it to," Daniel Sedin admitted.

Too much good stuff: The number of penalties for too many men on the ice seems to be on the rise in the playoffs as the Hawks can attest after being whistled for it in the third period on Monday.

"That's another trend that has been very unusual; the frequency of those penalties," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said, naming off a number of factors involved. "But at the end of the day it's always the coach's fault (laugh)."

Get shorty: Patrick Sharp's short-handed goal Monday was the second game-tying shorty by the Hawks thus far in the playoffs.

"We've got a lot of speed upfront and our D does a good job of blocking shots and sometimes we create some chances," Sharp said. "Big kills all night."

He said it: Kris Versteeg on finally burying the game-winning goal Monday: "You never know with that ice out there. it's pretty terrible ice. I was going to try to one-time it. You never know if it's going to hop over your stick or what. But it kind of got on and settled down and I just shot it."