The Best Laid Schemes o' Mice an' Men Gang Aft Agley: Vancouver Cuts Series Deficit to 3-2

According to Google, "gang aft agley" is Scottish for, roughly, "go to shit", which is what happened last night. The Blackhawks still lead the series 3-2, but they could have closed the door to the Canucks' season and instead decided to use the tactics that they'd pushed the Canucks to do to lose. They took stupid penalties. They ran at Canucks players. They got rattled when their game started going south. Their power play went back to looking like a pee wee penalty kill. (Hyperbolic analogy, but humor me here.)

It didn't start that way, though. The Blackhawks came out strong, but Luongo was determined to force a game 6. Then the Hawks allowed Ehrhoff a shot from the blue line, and it sailed past Antti Niemi's glove. There were a couple more chances on the Hawks' side, but Wellwood broke out and, on a 2-on-1, sent the puck Kevin Bieksa's way. He tapped it in for a 2-0 lead heading into the second period, where halfway through he netted the Canucks another one. The Blackhawks wouldn't find the back of the net until a Jonathan Toews tally with 7 minutes left in the 3rd-- by then it was too late. Alexandre Burrows managed himself another empty netter, and the Hawks ended the night down 4-1.

Notes:

• If it makes you feel any better, winning 4 in a row was a tall order to begin with, especially in this season's playoffs. That being said, here are a couple of numbers:
  
  • 142-101: All-time Game 5 record of teams leading series 3-1
    
  • 2-4: 2009-10 Game 5 record of teams leading series 3-1, including last night
  • 221-22: All-time series record of teams with 3-1 leads
  • 4-1: 2009-10 series record of teams with 3-1 leads
• I'm not sure what it is about home ice in this round, but it's looking like both teams are adverse to it.
• There were a couple of injuries to Canucks players last night-- According to reports, Sami Salo got a ruptured testicle after a Duncan Keith shot hit him. Ouch. Shane O'Brien needed 9 stitches on his forehead (I think) after Dustin Byfuglien's stick clipped him on the follow-through. Ouch again. Daniel Sedin had to go to the locker room after what was apparently a nasty slash by Dave Bolland. I didn't see what happened, though my friend did, and from where we sat it looked like it was a run-of-the-mill thing that shouldn't have hurt Daniel Sedin as much as it did, but of course we don't have the benefit of replay and other Hawks fans who saw it are saying otherwise. For the record, I don't approve of douchebaggery, not even from players of my own team. Agitating is one thing, but being a dick is another.
  
• All night I was waiting for the line of Sharp, Hossa and Kopecky to explode. They had plenty of chances, but nothing to show for it, which is unfortunate because Sharp and Kopecky have both been having a really strong postseason. Who'd have thought Hossa would be leading the team in penalty minutes?
• It's gonna be a long layover between now and game 6. Hockey gods help us all.