Playoff Box Score: Blackhawks Force Game 7 In Vancouver

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 25, 2011 2:40PM

Un-freaking -believable. The Blackhawks, written for dead after three lackluster losses to the Vancouver Canucks in this Stanley Cup playoff series, could pull of that rarest of feats tomorrow night -- winning a series after digging a 3-0 hole -- with a win in Vancouver after last night's 4-3 overtime win over the Canucks at the United Center.

The Canucks came to play last night, building a 2-1 first period lead on goals by Daniel Sedin and Alexandre Burrows in between a wrist shot by Bryan Bickell. Dave Bolland tied the game in the second period with a slap shot after a nice feed by Patrick Kane. Vancouver's Kevin Bieksa broke the tie less than a minute into the third period with a wrist shot past Corey Crawford, but Michael Frolik scored the Hawks' first penalty shot of the postseason to 1:27 later to knot the game again. Hawks Goalie Corey Crawford and Canuck's netminder Roberto Luongo, who entered the game in the third period, hunkered down the rest of the way to force overtime.

The overtime period was tightly contested until rookie Ben Smith scored the game winner on a backhand past Luongo with 4:30 left in overtime and sending the hometown crowd home believing that they can become only the fourth team in NHL history to win a seven-game series after starting the series 3-0.