• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Canucks try to eliminate Blackhawks in Game 5

Apr 21, 2011 - 3:05 PM (Sports Network) - The defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks will try to stave off elimination for a second time tonight, when they visit the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena for Game 5 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

The Blackhawks lost the first three games of this best-of-seven series, but they got on board with a blowout victory in Tuesday's Game 4 at Chicago's United Center.

Chicago won it all for the first time since 1961 last spring, but an offseason salary purge contributed to Chicago just making the playoffs as the West's eighth seed. Joel Quenneville's club will now have to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series for the first time in club history to keep its season going.

Vancouver, meanwhile, would like to end this series tonight after getting slammed, 7-2, in its first opportunity to close the set on Tuesday. The Canucks, of course, were ousted from the playoffs by Chicago in the conference semifinal round in each of the previous two springs.

Dave Bolland was the hero for Chicago in Game 4, notching a goal and three assists in his first action since suffering a concussion on March 9. Bolland's performance marked a career-high for points in a playoff game.

"We had to do anything we could to get a point, score a goal, make a big hit, something to get you going," said Bolland about Chicago's mindset from the opening seconds. "They came out flat, and we did a good job of coming on from the start tonight."

Patrick Sharp tallied twice, while Michael Frolik, Duncan Keith, Bryan Bickell and Brian Campbell also scored for Chicago, which could have been the first club since the 2003 Detroit Red Wings to be swept in the first round following a Stanley Cup title, but fought back to return the series to Vancouver.

Corey Crawford stopped 21-of-23 shots for the win.

"We've improved every single game and we still haven't played our best," said Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville. "There are some very good things that happened, but now we have some momentum in our game, we played well on the road all year. It's a proud bunch."

The Blackhawks hope to get defenseman Brent Seabrook back tonight after he sat out Tuesday with an upper body injury suffered when he was hit from behind by Canucks forward Raffi Torres in Game 3. Seabrook, who led all Chicago defensemen with 48 points this season, is questionable for tonight.

Sami Salo and Daniel Sedin provided the offense in Game 4 for the Canucks, who were looking for their first series sweep since taking out St. Louis in the opening round two years ago.

Roberto Luongo was yanked early in the third after giving up six goals on 28 shots. Cory Schneider finished the game yielding one goal on seven chances.

"We gotta keep our composure, not get too high or too low," Luongo said of the blowout loss. "We'll have to forget about this one, and at least we don't have to sit on it for another five months before we get to play them again."

Vancouver is 2-0 on home ice in this series, taking the opener by a 2-0 score and notching a 4-3 win in Game 2. The Presidents' Trophy winners had a 27-9-5 record as the host during the regular season.

Chicago, which is scheduled to host Game 6 on Sunday, struggled to a 20-12-9 mark as the guest this season.

Chicago and Vancouver have met two other times in the postseason in addition to their 2009 and 2010 semifinal bouts, and the Blackhawks own a 3-1 edge all- time against the Canucks in the playoffs.