Before last night’s performance, the Canucks have had a tough time maintaining their intense level of play through an entire 60-minutes; in the first two games against the Blackhawks, they gave up a three-goal and a two-goal lead, the latter resulting in a demoralizing 6-3 loss. So when the Canucks achieved yet another three-goal lead in last night’s Game three in Chicago, no one could be blamed for remaining cautiously optimistic.
While both teams seemed to be playing an off game — evidenced by the three overall delay of game penalties for flipping the puck over the glass, and the ridiculous number of times a man was taken down by his own skates — the Canucks were able to take the lead late in the first period off a goal from Raymond, and added to it twice more with two early second period goals, one from Bernier and the other from Henrik Sedin.
However, just 2:30 after the third goal, Chicago struck back with a powerplay goal, a reminder to the Canucks how quickly things can change when the momentum shifts, especially when the opposing team has the home-ice advantage. The remainder of the game was a display of Vancouver’s defensive fortitude, as they pressured the Blackhawks in their own zone with the help of Ryan Kesler, one of the best defensive forwards, and stood their ground in their own zone with an overall count of 21 blocked shots.
Although Chicago had their chances at making a third comeback, the Canucks, buoyed by Luongo’s performance, were able to hang on to the two-goal lead and take the 2-1 series lead in Chicago. Of all the games the Canucks have won so far in the 2009 playoffs, this was their most important. The Canucks will face the Blackhawks in Chicago for the second time tomorrow night at 5:00PM PST in Game 4.