The Blackhawks had no trouble with Olympic gold medal-winning goalie Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks.Andrew Ladd, Duncan Keith, Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg and Jordan Hendry scored first-period goals to chase Luongo in the Blackhawks’ 6-3 victory Friday.Marian Hossa added a goal and assist, and Jonathan Toews had two assists to help the Hawks win for the sixth time in seven games and pull into a first-place tie with San Jose in the Western Conference.Keith and Toews, along with Brent Seabrook, also played on Canada’s Olympic team. On Friday, the Blackhawks pounced on the Canucks’ coverage mistakes, as well as miscues by Luongo, to take early control against the conference foe they eliminated from the playoffs last spring.The game included ongoing skirmishes, but the Blackhawks made their point on the scoreboard by buzzing and cross-circuiting the Canucks defense.Luongo, making his second start since backstopping Canada to the Olympic title Sunday, was replaced by Andrew Raycroft to start the second. He exited the game after allowing the five first-period goals on 14 shots and slamming his stick on the bench.Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Mikael Samuelsson scored for the Canucks, whose two-game winning streak ended.Cristobal Huet stopped 20 shots. He made his second straight start after Antti Niemi started five in a row for the Blackhawks.Luongo and Vancouver’s defense struggled in a chippy first period, and the Hawks built a 5-1 lead.Luongo made three tough saves during an early 5-on-3 power play, then allowed a soft goal to Ladd at 3:48. Ladd shoveled a backhander on goal from the right boards that deflected off the shaft of Luongo’s stick and wobbled in. After the Blackhawks killed a 5-on-3 Vancouver advantage a few minutes later, they took charge.Keith’s power-play goal at 10:22 made it 2-0. With Luongo down and a wild scrum in front of the net, Keith aimed in a high shot from 40 feet out in the slot.Brouwer made it 3-0 just 31 seconds later. He drove to the net and rammed in the puck after Luongo deflected Niklas Hjalmarsson’s centering pass.Kesler fooled Huet with a screened shot from right circle with 5:51 left in the first to cut it to 3-1. But Versteeg replied 59 seconds later when he skated unchecked from left wing, cut across the crease and beat Luongo high on the glove side.Hendry, a defenseman, scored his first goal of the season with 43 seconds left when he took a centering pass from Toews and drove down the slot to the net. Burrows cut it to 5-2 at 2:05 of the second. He blew past the the defense fired a shot that went in off the post.Hossa scored on a screened shot late in the third — a second after a power play expired — to make it 6-2.Samuelsson completed the scoring on a screened shot with 2:51 left in the third.
NOTES—The Canucks played the 11th game of the NHL-record 14-game trip interrupted by the Olympic break. They’re 6-5-0 on the trip, which ends March 10 at Phoenix…..Vancouver D Andrew Alberts, acquired from Carolina on Wednesday, played his first game with the Canucks. He fought Brent Seabrook midway through the first period…..The Hawks evened the season series with the Canucks at 2-2-0 in the final regular-season meeting between the teams.