Kane Wakes up, Puts Canucks to Sleep

Hockey News - Dave Curtis -

CHICAGO -- Patrick Kane kicked off the biggest day of his hockey life by sleeping through his alarm. Despite setting his alarm clock for 8:30 a.m. Monday, he awoke at 9:47 a.m. and hurried to the United Center well behind his on-time teammates.

"I was late for all the meetings," Kane said after Chicago's 7-5, series-clinching victory over Vancouver. "I almost missed the skate. The day didn't start real good."

Kane said he drew a few sneers from the coaching staff but received no punishment for his tardiness. He redeemed himself plenty after dark, recording his first playoff hat trick and earning first-star honors. Two of his goals came in a 3:17 span when the Blackhawks turned a 5-4 deficit into the 7-5 final score.

"He's scored a lot of big goals this season," coach Joel Quenneville said. "But none bigger than the ones at the end."

Going to Timeout: After watching his team blow a 3-1 lead, Quenneville elected to burn his lone timeout with 5:11 remaining in the second period. He said his message to the team was simple: Forget the Canucks' rally to tie the game, and focus on what lies ahead. 

"It really calmed us down," winger Kris Versteeg said. "'Q' really knows when to call them. He's been doing things like that for us all year. That was a big point in the game."

Canucks stars come up empty: Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault spent much of the past two days calling out his top players for better efforts in Game 6. And save for two goals from Daniel Sedin, the Canucks' stars floundered in the spotlight.

Goalie Roberto Luongo, whom Vigneault called his team's "best player", allowed all seven goals, most in any regular-season or playoff game in 2008-09. Winger Alex Burrows, another of Vigneault's targets, went without a point in 17:14 of ice time and finished the series with no goals and one assist.

Dave Curtis is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at dcurtis@sportingnews.com.

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