Canucks 3, Blackhawks 2
Mikael Samuelsson scored the game winner early in the third period as the Vancouver Canucks beat the host Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their Western Conference quarterfinal series Sunday night.
Samuelsson played the hero after missing the previous game with an illness. The Swedish forward pounced on a rebound and knocked the loose puck past Blackhawks netminder Corey Crawford at 6:38 of the third.
Christian Ehrhoff and Daniel Sedin added goals while Roberto Luongo made 30 saves for the Canucks, who can wrap up the best-of-seven with a win in Game 4 Tuesday night in Chicago.
Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp replied for the Blackhawks, who are a loss away from seeing their Stanley Cup defense come to an end.
Chicago opened the scoring on a power play at 6:54 of the first period. Jonathan Toews won a faceoff directly to Keith, whose blistering slapshot beat Luongo just five seconds into the man advantage.
The Canucks responded midway through the second frame on a virtually identical play. Henrik Sedin won the faceoff and slid the loose puck to Ehrhoff, whose blast beat Crawford to the glove side eight seconds into a Vancouver power play.
The Canucks went in front just 54 seconds later when Alex Edler centred the puck to Daniel Sedin, who fanned on his first attempt before directing the puck into an empty net.
Chicago drew even at 12:40, just six seconds after Raffi Torres picked up an interference minor for a dangerous hit to head of defenseman Brent Seabrook. Toews centred the puck to Sharp, who one-timed it past Luongo low on the stick side for his first of the series.