The Fifth Liners

The Ottawa Senators are having a tough time of it recently. With each loss, that playoff spot keeps slipping away. Coming off the back of two homes losses (San Jose and Anaheim), the team needed to rekindle the same spirit that beat the Detroit Red Wings 6-1 a week ago. Current Stanley Cup holders Chicago aren't exactly having a walk in the park either. A few overtime losses means that the Blackhawks trail the Colorado Avalanche in the Central Division chase. Last night the Blackhawks welcomed the Senators to the United Center and the high scoring affair meant that for either team to take the edge, the game would require something a bit special. Step up Jonathan Toews . Last night Toews earned the right to drink for free in any tavern in Chicago. Except that one in Chicago Fire, cos it isn't real. Andrew Shaw opened the scoring early in the first to give Chicago the lead, only for Milan Michalek to restore parity with one minute left on the clock. The game stayed tigh...

A triple overtime winner from Adam Shaw gave the Chicago Blackhawks a terrific fighting 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins in game one of the Stanley Cup Final at the United Center last night! But this was no straight forward affair and required Joel Quenneville 's men to go deep to produce a result from the bleakest of scenario's! Milan Lucic got the Bruins off to a brilliant start with a goal mid way through the first period off an assist from Nathan Horton and the ever impressive David Krecji and Lucic then went one better and bagged a second only 51 seconds into the second period (thats a lot of seconds there!) with one again Krecji providing the chance, before Brandan Saad put Hawks back in contention two minutes later with his first play off goal. Patrice Bergeron restored the Bruins to two goal lead with a powerplay goal 6 minutes into the third and it looked as if the Blackhawks' final might go the same way as the Penguins before them. But however there was to ...

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...

Advantage Chicago Blackhawks . The Detroit Red Wings made their first trip to the United Center last night for the first game of the second round. Damien Brunner 's first period goal cancelled out Marian Hossa 's opener and that's how it stayed until eight minutes into the third period when Johnny Oduya and Marcus Kruger scored in quick succession to give the Blackhawks the lead. Patrick Sharp added a fourth with less than a minute to go. Final score 4-1. Nicklas Kronwall was unimpressed with his team's performance: " We know we're a much better team than this. [The] second and third periods [were] not nearly good enough. We know we're better than this and we have to find a way to get better for Game 2." - Geico's quote of the day. It wasn't all plain sailing for Chicago and a few desperate goal line scrambles and clearances were required to keep Detroit out. The boys from Michigan will rue the missed chances and opportunities. C...