Canucks Vs. Blackhawks, Game 4: Bolland’s Return Sparks Chicago’s Series-Saving Rout of Vancouver

The Chicago Blackhawks clearly played like a team that needed to save it’s season in tonight’s Game 4 against the Vancouver Canucks. They also got a potential rally-igniting return from key forward Dave Bolland. Bolland promptly came back and recorded a goal and three assists in Chicago’s 7-2 rout of Vancouver, to put the series at 3-1 Canucks, and force a Game 5 back in Vancouver Thursday night.

The game was 1-1 through 20 minutes, but the Blackhawks made it clear that they weren’t dead yet in a four-goal second period, which eclipsed the most goals that Chicago’s scored in any game in the series. Bolland set up Duncan Keith and Michael Frolik, while scoring a goal of his own in that period alone. Brian Campbell also tallied in the middle frame.

Patrick Sharp added two of his own in the third period to complete the rout. Sami Salo and Henrik Sedin scored in the first and third for Vancouver. Corey Crawford had little to do in this game, but came up when needed. Roberto Luongo was mercifully pulled after the sixth Blackhawk goal, stopping 22 of 28 shots into the third. He was spelled by Cory Schneider, who saw playoff action for the first time.

The series heads back to Vancouver for Game 5 on Thursday. With the Bruins’ epic comeback against the Flyers last season, anything seems possible. Certainly, with a sparkplug like Bolland back in the lineup and a little bit of belief, maybe we see this get made into a series.