Official Site of Darcy Hordichuk

It would not have been unreasonable for Jonathan Toews or Martin Havlat to dash off with the puck seconds after the ceremonial opening face-off Thursday night to try to get a good shot on Roberto Luongo.

The Blackhawks had heard so much about the importance of a fast start before Game 4 of their Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinal series with the Vancouver Canucks that they could be excused for wanting to get things under way as soon as Bulls rookie standout Derrick Rose handled puck-drop duties at the rollicking United Center.

But they trailed 1-0 after two periods.

The Hawks were busy but scoreless during a defense-dominated, 0-0 first period, then spotted the Canucks the first goal of the game when Rick Rypien set up Darcy Hordichuk for his first score of the series at 8:32 of the second.

The play came after the Hawks’ most dangerous forays of the night. Andrew Ladd, Jonathan Toews and Matt Walker all tested Luongo from in close, but he stopped each shot.

Then Rypien collected a long rebound of a deflected slap shot and broke out the other way, sending Hordichuk in alone on Nikolai Khabibulin with a pass off a brilliant spin move.

The Hawks had a power-play opportunity a short time later when Shane O’Brien was sent off for slashing Dustin Byfuglien, and they were skating 4-on-3 after Havlat and Kevin Bieksa drew matching roughing calls for tangling in Luongo’s crease. But they couldn’t capitalize despite a 17-10 shots-on-goal advantage.

The Hawks were firing a ton of rubber at Luongo, including five shots on goal in the first four minutes, four during a power play after Bieksa went off for interference when he took Toews down just to Luongo’s left at 3:20.

But Luongo turned aside each of them.

Vancouver had just two shots on goal in the first 10 minutes, but went on the power play at 10:01 when Troy Brouwer was whistled for boarding. Khabibulin did not face a shot as the Hawks did an excellent job not only killing the penalty but creating their best opportunity when Patrick Sharp broke loose and got a shot on Luongo.

Bieksa was the instigator in an early skirmish with Ladd that set the tone for a chippy first period in which the Hawks outshot the Canucks 8-4.

Vancouver had struck first in each of the first three games, including twice in the first period of Game 3 on Tuesday night. After a second-period exchange of goals, the Canucks effectively sat on their two-goal lead and registered a 3-1 victory that gave them a 2-1 advantage in the series.

The Canucks also reclaimed home-ice advantage after squandering it by splitting the first two games in Vancouver.

“We’ve had a tendency to play from behind and it finally caught up with us,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re better playing even or ahead.”

The Hawks were expecting a Game 3 lift from the home crowd, which hadn’t seen them play since April 25, when they took a 3-2 lead over Calgary in their first-round series, closing out the Flames two nights later. The noise was there but the energy wasn’t — Vancouver took the play to the Hawks all night while protecting Luongo with Secret Service-like diligence.

“We didn’t have much jump in our play,” Sharp acknowledged.

Quenneville was even more candid.

“I didn’t like anything about our game,” he said.

Quenneville didn’t fault the effort as much as the execution. He felt the Hawks tried to do too much fancy skating and play-making rather than send the puck and a small army of big bodies at Luongo, a strategy that produced nine goals in the two games at Vancouver.

He also expected more than 14 minutes of play from Patrick Kane, who saw his ice time reduced after he took a bad hooking penalty late in the first period that led to a Vancouver power-play goal early in the second.

The Canucks were without defensive standout Sami Salo, their third-leading playoff scorer, who missed his second straight game with a dreaded lower-body injury. Winger Pavol Demitra was a scratch as well.