CHICAGO – Kris Versteeg scored go the go-ahead goal from the left circle with 1:30 left, and the Chicago Blackhawks rallied to beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Monday night to even the Western Conference semifinals at 1-1.
Game 3 will be played Wednesday night in Vancouver.
Versteeg lost the puck near the goal during a rush, and it went out to Duncan Keith, who slid a pass to Versteeg for a shot that beat goalie Roberto Luongo.
Patrick Kane added an empty-netter with 47.7 seconds left.
Chicago’s Patrick Sharp tied the game earlier in the third with a short-handed goal.
Vancouver scored twice in the first 5:02. Mason Raymond opened the scoring, and Mikael Samulesson added a power-play tally.
Brent Seabrook pulled the Blackhawks within a goal later in the first.
Chicago’s Antti Niemi finished with 24 saves. Luongo stopped 29 shots.
Sharp’s goal came at the end of a two-on-one break. He chipped the puck past a defender, skated in from the right, waited until Luongo committed and then beat them with a backhand.
Playing with more spark and aggressiveness than in Game 1, Chicago finally scored against Luongo while at even strength. The Blackhawks’ only goal in a 5-1 loss in Game 1 came with a two-man advantage.
PENGUINS-CANADIENS: The Pittsburgh Penguins might feel more at home than the typical visitors to the Bell Centre for a playoff game against the Canadiens.
Owned by Montreal-born hockey legend Mario Lemieux, the Pittsburgh Penguins can expect a small share of local support when they take the ice tonight for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which is tied 1-1.
Pittsburgh’s lineup boasts four Quebecers — goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, defenseman Kris Letang, and forwards Maxime Talbot and Pascal Dupuis. And Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, a native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, honed his French while playing junior hockey in Rimouski, Quebec.
“It will be crazy being in Montreal,” said Talbot. “It will be crazy. Fun. Exciting. But we just need to control our emotions because it’s still an important hockey game.”
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