Efficient penalty kill has allowed Hawks to stay alive

Kill or be killed.

It's an old saying that has a lot more to do with survival in the wild than in sports.

But we'll use it in this case to demonstrate a point: The Blackhawks' penalty kill has been exceedingly efficient of late, and was a big reason they survived the Western Conference finals vs. Anaheim and have earned a 2-2 split in the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Since allowing 7 goals and posting a sickly .703 kill percentage in the first eight playoff games, the PK unit has allowed just 5 goals on 33 chances in the last 13 games.

That works out to a decent .848 percentage but improves to .875 if you take out a meaningless goal by the Ducks at the end of Game 7.

"When the games have been on the line, we haven't given up the timely power-play goal," coach Joel Quenneville said to reporters in Tampa as his team gets set for a pivotal Game 5. "The penalty killers have done a good job of being aware of the details."

The PK has been great against the Lightning, killing off 10 of 11 chances while allowing just 12 shots on goal.

The most impressive example came in Game 3 when Bryan Bickell and Brandon Saad were both in the penalty box, which gave Tampa Bay a 5 on 3 for 86 seconds. The United Center crowd roared its approval as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Saad, who is a big reason the Hawks have been better of late in this area, tipped his cap to assistant coach Mike Kitchen for his work.

"We've really always understood how big of a deal it is, especially to try and take away energy from a team like this," Jonathan Toews said. "If you happen to take a couple (penalties) like we did (in Game 4), we're confident we can find a way to get the job done, (and) feed off of the energy it gives us at the end."

From Lightning coach Jon Cooper's standpoint, he doesn't believe special teams has swung the momentum in this series. He also gave some kudos to the Hawks.

"I don't think we've gotten near the looks we can," Cooper said. "You got to give them credit. They got four guys and a goaltender that are trying to keep the puck out of the net."

Captain Clutch:

Jonathan Toews has the uncanny ability to raise his game when everything's on the line. Over the last three seasons, the Hawks' captain has 15 points (6 goals) in the final game of a series, or 1.5 points per game.

This season, he has 7 points in three of those games, with his biggest result coming in Game 7 against the Ducks when he scored the Hawks' first 2 goals in a 5-3 win. In 53 other playoff games the last three seasons, Toews has 36 points (0.68 ppg).

"I expect that out of myself," Toews said Friday sitting next to Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson. "So do these two guys sitting with me, and so (does) the rest of our team. ...

"You need to raise your game to make a difference. We all think that way. I think that's a huge reason why we've made it this far."

Communication breakdown:

Tampa Bay defenseman Matthew Carle admitted Thursday there are some big differences when it comes to goalies Ben Bishop and rookie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Carle said Bishop's ability to play the puck makes opponents think about how they dump it into the Lightning's zone.

The other issue relates to communication on the ice.

"Vasi, there might be a bit of a communication factor there," Carle said. "Bish talks a lot, speaks English very well (laughter). Vasi is a little bit more quiet. A lot of us on D don't understand Russian except for Nesty (Nikita Nesterov)."

He said it:

"Obviously scoring goals is a lot more fun than keeping them out of the net. But keeping them out of the net is what is going to get you the big shiny trophy at the end."

- Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper

He said it II:

"Yeah, I still speak not really good for cameras. But for writers, yeah. For you, you can change words."

- Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who will only talk to print reporters