Jonathan Toews

Buff's big night The Vancouver Canucks had dismissed his presence as 257 pounds of irrelevance and hot air. Their coach mispronounced his surname to underscore this. So in a way, Dustin Byfuglien had to reintroduce himself. Wednesday night, after the burly Blackhawks winger snapped his second goal of the night into the net, he glided along the boards, staring down the crowd at Vancouver's GM Place. Byfuglien ended up scoring a hard-work hat trick in the Hawks' 5-2 Game 3 victory in the Western Conference semifinals.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

All games in this best-of-seven series begin at 8 p.m. Game 1: Tomorrow: Flyers at Chicago, NBC10 Game 2: Monday: Flyers at Chicago, NBC10 Game 3: Wednesday: Chicago at Flyers, Versus Game 4: Friday, June 4: Chicago at Flyers, Versus Game 5: Sunday, June 6: Flyers at Chicago, NBC10 Game 6: Wednesday, June 9: Chicago at Flyers, NBC10 Game 7: Friday, June 11: Flyers at Chicago, NBC10 - if necessary Radio: All...

JONATHAN TOEWS and Steve Montador each scored twice to help the Chicago Blackhawks beat the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 6-3, last night for their third straight victory. Duncan Keith had a goal and an assist for Chicago, which handed Edmonton its third consecutive loss. Former Flyer Daniel Carcillo capped Chicago's scoring with an empty-net goal. Ryan Smyth, Jordan Eberle and Shawn Horcoff scored for the Oilers. Montador, a defenseman playing his 10th NHL season, had his first career two-goal game.

Rookie Andrew Shaw recorded his first two-goal game, and the host Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2, on Sunday night for their third straight win. Viktor Stalberg, Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell also scored for Chicago, which is 7-1-1 in its last nine despite playing without captain and leading goals scorer Jonathan Toews. Mike Knuble and Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington, which lost its second straight following a four-game winning streak. Corey Crawford made 16 saves and in his second straight start.

Jonathan Toews and Steve Montador each scored two as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers , 6-3, Sunday, their third straight win. Elsewhere: Nicklas Backstrom made 32 saves in a 3-2 win for the Minnesota Wild over the host Anaheim Ducks . . . . Aaron Rome and Henrik Sedin scored early as the Vancouver Canucks beat the visiting New York Islanders , 4-1.   Murray's milestone ...

Jonathan Toews scored on a penalty shot to start Chicago's four-goal first period against New York backup Martin Biron as the Blackhawks emphatically snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers on Thursday night in New York. Toews kicked off the spree just over a minute in, defenseman Nick Leddy doubled the lead 1 minute, 3 seconds later, and Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa added goals to make the score 4-0 before 10 minutes had elapsed.

CHICAGO - With Blackhawk players acting as tour guides, the beer-soaked Stanley Cup took a victory lap unlike any the city has ever seen yesterday. Wherever hockey's Holy Grail went, adulation was sure to follow. Elated fans cheered the trophy as it made a daylong pilgrimage from O'Hare Airport to Rush Street, with stops at a suburban restaurant, a North Side bar and the United Center in between. The team and the silver cup were so utterly accessible after arriving on an overnight flight from Philadelphia that, for a few glorious hours, Chicago seemed like the biggest small town in America.

The Chicago Blackhawks are one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1992, thanks to 257-pound playoff dynamo Dustin Byfuglien. Byfuglien scored his seventh goal of this postseason 12:24 into overtime last night and the host Blackhawks beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-2, to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. The Blackhawks can finish the sweep with a victory tomorrow at the United Center. Byfuglien went straight down the middle and took a nice pass from Dave Bolland, who was behind the net, to beat Evgeni Nabokov and set off a deafening roar from the crowd of 22,311.

Jonathan Toews and Troy Brouwer scored power-play goals in a 3:31 span early in the third period last night, leading the Chicago Blackhawks to a 4-1 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Kings. Toews had been out with a concussion since Vancouver's Willie Mitchell leveled him on Oct. 21. The Blackhawks lost three of six games without their captain, who had a team-high 34 goals last season. Anze Kopitar scored his 14th goal for the Kings, tying injured Washington star Alex Ovechkin for the NHL lead.

Rookie Andrew Shaw recorded his first two-goal game, and the host Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Washington Capitals, 5-2, on Sunday night for their third straight win. Viktor Stalberg, Patrick Kane and Bryan Bickell also scored for Chicago, which is 7-1-1 in its last nine despite playing without captain and leading goals scorer Jonathan Toews. Mike Knuble and Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington, which lost its second straight following a four-game winning streak. Corey Crawford made 16 saves and in his second straight start.

Jonathan Toews scored on a penalty shot to start Chicago's four-goal first period against New York backup Martin Biron as the Blackhawks emphatically snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers on Thursday night in New York. Toews kicked off the spree just over a minute in, defenseman Nick Leddy doubled the lead 1 minute, 3 seconds later, and Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa added goals to make the score 4-0 before 10 minutes had elapsed.

SUNRISE, Fla. - When Flyers left winger Scott Hartnell received a text from Brendan Shanahan, the NHL's disciplinary guru, he figured he may have done something that would cause him to be punished. "He said, 'Please call me,' and I was trying to think back to the last game and if maybe I did something stupid," Hartnell said with a laugh before Tuesday's game in Florida. Instead, Hartnell was told he had been added to the all-star team. At first, Hartnell kidded his teammates and his father, telling them he was going to have a disciplinary hearing.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

EVGENI MALKIN had five points and a third-period dustup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And all he wanted to talk about after yesterday's game was the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins' 6-3 win. Malkin had three goals and two assists, and James Neal added two goals for the Penguins, who recovered from a blown three-goal lead. "I didn't think about playing a great game. I know we have two points," Malkin said. Malkin scored twice in a 1-minute, 49-second stretch of the third period to put Pittsburgh ahead 5-3 after the Penguins had squandered a 3-0 lead earlier in the frame.

ANDREW BRUNETTE and Patrick Sharp scored 21 seconds apart midway through the second period, and Corey Crawford made 20 saves in his first start in more than 2 weeks as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the visiting Montreal Canadiens, 5-1, last night. Viktor Stalberg scored midway through the third period and Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell added late goals for NHL-leading Chicago. The Blackhawks rebounded from a 3-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Tuesday, improving to 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.

Tim Thomas made 47 saves, Daniel Paille scored twice and the visiting Boston Bruins extended their winning streak to three games with a 5-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. Rich Peverley had a goal and an assist and Chris Kelly and Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston, which won for the second night in a row to move into a tie with the Flyers atop the Eastern Conference standings. Andrew Ference had two assists. Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist for the Senators, on a 2-4-2 skid despite an overtime win at Buffalo a night earlier.

JONATHAN TOEWS and Steve Montador each scored twice to help the Chicago Blackhawks beat the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 6-3, last night for their third straight victory. Duncan Keith had a goal and an assist for Chicago, which handed Edmonton its third consecutive loss. Former Flyer Daniel Carcillo capped Chicago's scoring with an empty-net goal. Ryan Smyth, Jordan Eberle and Shawn Horcoff scored for the Oilers. Montador, a defenseman playing his 10th NHL season, had his first career two-goal game.

Jonathan Toews and Steve Montador each scored two as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers , 6-3, Sunday, their third straight win. Elsewhere: Nicklas Backstrom made 32 saves in a 3-2 win for the Minnesota Wild over the host Anaheim Ducks . . . . Aaron Rome and Henrik Sedin scored early as the Vancouver Canucks beat the visiting New York Islanders , 4-1.   Murray's milestone ...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Roberto Luongo stopped 20 shots and made Chris Higgins' second-period goal stand up in the Vancouver Canucks' 1-0 win over the Nashville Predators in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals Thursday night. It was Luongo's second shutout of these playoffs and the third of his NHL postseason career. He made nine saves in the third period, including one on a shorthanded breakaway by Mike Fisher 5 minutes, 20 seconds in. Pekka Rinne had several spectacular stops among his 29 saves to keep the Predators in the game despite his club's being outshot by 30-20 and outplayed for long stretches.