Roberto Luongo already plays at a level higher than nearly every other goaltender in the NHL, but once the Vancouver Canucks’ captain gets into the playoffs he enters a whole new stratosphere.
The Blackhawks have the difficult task of trying to solve Luongo in the Western Conference semifinals, and their first attempt ended in a 5-3 loss Thursday night in Game 1 at General Motors Place.
The Canucks stormed to a 3-0 lead and then held off a furious Hawks rally that erased the deficit in the third period before Sami Salo won it for the Canucks with 1 minute 13 seconds remaining.
Patrick Kane had two goals and Dave Bolland the other for the Hawks.
“It’s tough to lose like that, especially with a minute left,” Kane said. “At the same time, we put together a good third period so we can build on that.”
The Hawks, who have a pretty solid goalie in their own right in Nikolai Khabibulin, just couldn’t overcome Luongo as the Canucks drew first blood in the best-of-seven series.
“It was a tough way to lose.” Hawks winger Kris Versteeg said. “We always knew what we could do against this team. We’ve always played hard against them. It was just an unfortunate way to end there. It shows that we have a lot of character in this room by coming back.”The Hawks killed off two consecutive Canucks power plays in the first period, including a double-minor on Andrew Ladd for high-sticking Vancouver’s Kyle Wellwood. But just 10 seconds after the second penalty expired, Duncan Keith was sent off for tripping, and the Canucks capitalized. Mats Sundin sent a pass across the Hawks crease to Pavol Demitra, and the veteran winger controlled the puck before beating Khabibulin at the 15:22 mark of the period.
Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin made it 2-0 at 5:13 of the second after taking a feed from behind the Hawks net from his brother, Daniel, and beating Khabibulin to the stick side.
Luongo stopped Havlat on a wrist shot from the right circle midway through the second and later halted a power-play chance by Jonathan Toews from in close to keep the Canucks on top.
Ryan Kesler made it 3-0 at 15:23 of the second after Wellwood flipped a backhand pass from behind the Hawks net that Kesler stuffed past Khabibulin.
The final four minutes of the second had the Canucks on the power play after Kane was called for highsticking and drawing blood on Wellwood. A second before the period ended, Daniel Sedin’s redirection of a shot went off the right post.
Kane finally solved Luongo just 1:01 into the third period to draw the Hawks to 3-1. Martin Havlat’s attempt from in close squirted to Kane, who beat Luongo to the stick side for his third goal of the playoffs.
The Hawks made it interesting when Kane notched his second goal of the game at 10:11 while on the power play. With Vancouver’s Darcy Hordichuk in the box for roughing Bolland, Luongo kicked a rebound of a Brent Seabrook shot right to Kane, who rifled it in from the right circle to make it 3-2.
Bolland scored with 5:29 remaining in the third to tie it at 3-3. The center tucked in a rebound of a Keith shot from in close.
Salo scored the game-winner on the rebound of a Steve Bernier shot after Khabibulin made a terrific save following a two-on-one break for Mason Raymond and Bernier. Ryan Johnson added an empty-net goal with 15.5 seconds left.
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ckuc@tribune.com
