CHICAGO — A scoreboard announcement during the first period told fans rally towels would be distributed at the United Center before Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. That is, of course, if Game 5 was necessary.
For a while, it looked like it might not have been.
The Chicago Blackhawks avoided falling into a deep hole as they rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 2 Monday night to even the best-of-seven series at one game apiece with the next two games scheduled to be played in Vancouver starting Wednesday night.
The Canucks jumped to an early two-goal lead and held a 2-1 lead it into the third period behind the strong goaltending of Robert Luongo, but the Hawks mounted a comeback as Patrick Sharp tied it with a short-handed tally and Kris Versteeg scored the go-ahead goal game-winner with 1 minute, 30 seconds remaining in the third.
Mason Raymond and Mikael Samuelsson scored in within the first 5:02 for Vancouver to stun the crowd of 22,142, but the Hawks’ comeback turned jeers into cheers and gave them momentum heading into Game 3.
Brent Seabrook had a goal and two assists and Patrick Kane also scored an empty-netter as Antti Niemi outdueled Luongo in net to pick up the victory one game after being yanked after allowing five goals in two periods of Saturday’s 5-1 win by the Canucks in Game 1.
“Just another playoff win for the Hawks, I guess you could say,” Sharp said with a smile.
“It wasn’t the way we drew it up. I don’t know if we got two excited and wanted to make amends for Game 1 early on, but our goaltending kept us in there, we had some big (penalty) kills and a few lucky bounces that seemed to wake us up halfway through the first.
“We’ve used the term ‘must-win’ a few times and that was definitely a game we had to win. They play so well in their building and every game is important, but 0-2 to these guys is tough, that’s for sure.”
Raymond kicked things off 1:22 into the opening period and Samuelsson converted off a 5-on-3 advantage to make it 2-0 to put the Hawks on their heels.
Seabrook cut the deficit in half as the Hawks seemed to find their intensity a short time later. Dave Bolland’s pass from behind the net deflected off Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa in front of the net and Seabrook pounced on it to score his first goal of the postseason.
“It’s tough going down 2-0 to Vancouver,” Seabrook said. “They’re a very talented team, they’re a very defensive team (and) they’ve got a world-class goalie in net, but I thought we did a good job of fighting back, fighting for what we wanted and fighting for what we got and started to roll there.”
Sharp tied it 2-2 with a short-handed goal with just over 13 minutes remaining in the third to spark the comeback. The forward broke in 2-on-1 with Versteeg, deked Luongo and shoveled in a back-hander.
Versteeg scored from the bottom of the left circle after receiving a pass from Duncan Keith and firing a wrist shot past a lunging Luongo. Kane gave the Hawks their fourth unanswered goal in the final minute into an empty net.
In franchise history, the Hawks are 20-14 after splitting the first two games of a Stanley Cup playoffs series.
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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): HKN-CANUCKS-BH
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