A year ago,the Vancouver Canucks took game one from the Blackhawks at General Motors Place,but the Hawks ended up winning that Western Conference Semi Final series in six. The Blackhawks now hope history will repeat itself,only this time with the same second round matchup starting in the United Center,the Canucks put a big time whipping on the Hawks 5-1. After the Hawks put plenty of early pressure on Robert Luongo, it was the Canucks who broke the ice at 13:51 when Christian Ehrhoff slapped a Mason Raymond pass by Antti Niemi. The Hawks shortly after got their second power play,but came up empty as Luongo remained sharp.It looked like the Hawks would get into the first intermission down a goal when all of a sudden with :11 left in the period, Ryan Kessler got a pass from the corner to Raymond who’s screened shot beat a stunned Niemi,and the Canucks took a 2-0 lead into the locker room despite getting outshot 17-13. It got worse in the second period when the Sedin twins stuck just :32 in. Daniel dropped the puck to his brother Henrik,who beat Niemi to make it 3-0. At 10:02, Patrick Kane was penalized for holding the stick,and Kyle Wellwod scored at 10:59. Then to add insult to injury, Michael Grabner got the fifth and final goal Niemi would yield on this night at 16:21, making it 5-0. Predictably, Cristobal Huet replaced Niemi to start the third period. With the help of a pair of minor penalties on Vancouver’s Alexander Edler(his third minor of the game)and Raymond, the Hawks finally broke through against Luongo on the ensuing five on three when Kane pushed one between Luongo’s legs while the goalie was down on all fours at 2:07. It was Kane’s 5th of the current Playoffs.That was it for the Hawks.

NOTES—Game two in Monday night at 8pm…..Attendance was 22,184….The Hawks outshot Vancouver 37-26.

LES