VANCOUVER—After polishing off the Canucks with three wins in Vancouver, the Blackhawks don’t mind opening the Western Conference finals at top-seeded San Jose.Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg scored 36 seconds apart early in the second period, and the Blackhawks eliminated Vancouver in Game 6 of the second round for the second straight year with a 5-1 win on Tuesday.Dave Bolland scored on a short-handed breakaway with 45 seconds left in the second period, and Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien added breakaway goals 35 seconds apart in the third to send the Hawks back to the Western Conference finals.Antti Niemi made 29 saves for the second-seeded Blackhawks, who will face the San Jose Sharks with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals on the line. After losing Game 5 at home against the Canucks, the Blackhawks feel at home on the road. Shane O’Brien scored 3:44 into the third period, and Roberto Luongo finished with 30 saves for the Canucks, who were knocked out in the second round for the third time in four years. Vancouver hasn’t advanced past the second round since 1994 when the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup Finals.Exactly one year after Luongo melted down when the Hawks knocked Vancouver out with a 7-5 win in Game 6, the goalie had a brilliant first period. He gloved Patrick Sharp’s breakaway with 6:13 left, and kicked out the left pad to stop Byfuglien’s tap-in on the goal line 8 seconds later.Sami Salo played 48 hours after taking a slap shot in the groin that forced him out of Game 5 and required a hospital visit. But his partner on the top pairing, Alexander Edler, left the game with an ankle injury after being hit hard by the 6-foot-4, 257-pound Byfuglien with 3:24 left in the period.He didn’t come back for the second, and the mixed-up pairings quickly allowed two goals. O’Brien made a bad pinch in the Hawks end, creating a 3-on-2 that Brouwer finished with a redirection.It was the first point of the playoffs for Brouwer, who was a healthy scratch since Game 1 despite 22 goals in the regular season. The Vancouver native was minus-5 in his first eight postseason games after his father was rushed to the hospital with a blot clot on his brain in early April.Kevin Bieksa gave up the puck coming out of his end on the next shift, and Versteeg picked it up on a 2-on-1 break. Vancouver had a great chance to get back in it on a late power play, but Pavol Demitra lost the puck while playing in Edler’s spot on the point, and Bolland made it 3-0.Vancouver had six shots in the second period — three on the power play in the final minute — but managed 10 in the first seven minutes of the third, forcing the Blackhawks to take a timeout. It worked. With the Canucks pressing, Kane and Byfuglien scored on consecutive shifts.

NOTES—Jonathan Toews has six goals and 19 points on his scoring streak……Tomas Kopecky came out of the lineup for Brouwer