The Fifth Liners

The Chicago Blackhawks stuttering start to their new campaign continued with a 5-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild at the United Centre last night- this defeat leaves the Hawks record as 6-1-3 which after their glorious start last year, is making them look slightly awkward. Zach Parise got the Wild started after he scored a rebound on a powerplay after 12.39 of the 1st period played after Corey Crawford had saved the initial effort! But then Niklas Backstrom made an excellent save from Marion Hossa on the break away with six minutes remaining! Minnesota's lead was then increased to 2-0 when after only 1.03 of the second period, Kyle Brodziak tipped in Marco Scandella's shot to leave Hawks fans bewildered! Their frustration grew when Backstrom denied Jonathan Toews and then the post denied another potential goal to still leave Chicago behind, they also had a goal waived off for a high stick before Bryan Bickell finally smashed one in for the home side to reduce the scores to 2-1 ...

The Chicago Blackhawks fought back from 2-1 down against the LA Kings at the Staples Center last night to secure a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference final and to leave the Blackhawks one win away from guaranteeing their place in the Stanley Cup final! All around there was an anticipation in the air that the Kings could produce a fight back like their Quarter Final win against St Louis previous and the sell out crowd expected big. When Slava Voynov drove in the opener from distance, it appeared it would be party time all the way for LA! But Chicago had no desire to fade away quietly and were level after 13 mins when Bryan Bickell scored! But less than two minutes into the second period, Dustin Penner beat Corey Crawford to score his first goal in over 11 games and to put the Kings 2-1 ahead!  Justin Williams had the chance to put them further ahead but his breakaway effort was superbly stopped by Crawford But again Chicago responded strongly and again tied the scores whe...