Hawks make it to Round 3

As I astutely predicted they would two weeks back, the Chicago Blackhawks have won Round 2 of the playoffs by beating the Vancouver Canucks in 6 games.

I'm not surprised.

My reason? The Hawks won Game 2. I don't remember the exact statistic, but it seems that whichever team wins Game 2 more often than not goes on to win the series. In fact, it's been said that Game 2 is more important than Game 1, when the teams are still feeling each other out.

If you remember Game 2 of the Chicago-Vancouver series, the Hawks won 6-3, were pretty much the dominant team and controlled the game. Their stars shined brighter in Game 2.

Game 3 and Game 4 were different stories. The Hawks played horribly and lost in Game 3, and did not deserve to win Game 4. But they did, along with the next two games, and now they are in the Conference Finals.

This is awesome! The Hawks have not made it this far since 1995. But what was even more exciting was that they scored 7 goals in Game 6. Sure, they let in 5 goals too, but Vancouver is no slouch. Two seasons back, if the Blackhawks allowed 3 goals in a game, they were toast. Now they can let in 4 or 5 and still win.

The Blackhawks have potential to hold their own in the next round because they are not just getting scoring from their best players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews--they are also getting goals from guys like Adam Burish and Dustin Byfuglien. While every championship team has top-tier players who do the bulk of the scoring, they also have several guys who normally don't score step it up and help out.

Mind you, Adam Burisn scored the game winner. Of course, Patrick Kane (3G, 1A) and Jonathan Toews (2G, 1A) won the game for the Hawks. But if Burish hadn't chipped in when he did, it could have gone to OT.

Speaking of Kane, his third goal was amazing. One-on-one with a Vancouver defender, Kane faked a shot, fooling the Canucks' D-man, then took his real shot, fooling Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo. That single play showed that Kane can play at the same level as Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby.