Preview: Canucks (45-27) at Blackhawks (46-24)
Date: April 02, 2015 8:30 PM EDT
Having rebounded well from frustrating back-to-back defeats, the Chicago Blackhawks are focused on further improving their position in the Central Division.
Seeking a third straight victory, the Blackhawks try to avoid being swept by a Vancouver Canucks club that's looking for a sixth consecutive road win Thursday night.
Chicago (46-24-6) dropped to fourth in the Central and into the Western Conference wild-card lead after being outscored 9-3 in consecutive losses to Philadelphia and Columbus last week. But after Jonathan Toews' goal with 31 seconds left led to a 4-3 win at Winnipeg on Sunday and backup Scott Darling made 31 saves in a 4-1 victory over Los Angeles a night later, the Blackhawks are back in third and one point behind second-place St. Louis.
"Our objective is to make the playoffs, finish as high as we can, win the division," coach Joel Quenneville said. "That's where we want to go."
Though the Blackhawks are five points behind first-place Nashville with six games remaining - Chicago has two games in hand - a victory in this contest could move them ahead of the Blues, who host Calgary on Thursday. Chicago is 2-1-0 against St. Louis with two meetings left.
"There's been a good response the last couple of games and we're moving forward," defenseman Johnny Oduya said. "That's what we're looking at."
Another goal is to avoid losing all three matchups with Vancouver (45-27-5), which hasn't swept a season series from Chicago since 2005-06.
Second in the Pacific Division, the Canucks are trying to win six straight on the road for the first time since a nine-game run in March 2011. They opened a four-game trip through the Central Division with Monday's 4-1 victory over St. Louis and followed by winning 5-4 in a shootout over the Predators a night later.
"It's huge for the confidence for sure," said the Canucks' Eddie Lack, who made 34 saves Tuesday and has a 1.94 goals-against average in his 4-0-1 road stretch.
Vancouver, 9-3-1 in its last 13, has gone 4-0-3 in its past seven regular season games at Chicago.
The NHL has yet to hand out any discipline after forward Alexandre Burrows was given a game misconduct for a high hit on Nashville's Paul Gaustad and defenseman Kevin Bieksa earned a 10-minute penalty for checking Viktor Stalberg in the head at the same time.
"You get two guys thrown out on one play. I don't think I've ever seen that before," Vancouver forward Chris Higgins told the NHL's official website. "It certainly is difficult this time of year too, we need the two points. You try to remind yourself with everything going on that we need the win."
Burrows scored for the second straight game and also had an assist.
Vancouver took the latest meeting with Chicago 5-4 in overtime at the United Center on Feb. 11, blowing a late 4-2 lead but getting Daniel Sedin's second goal of the game early in the extra period.
Sedin has four goals in Vancouver's last three games at Chicago, and he and brother Henrik Sedin have combined for seven assists in those contests.
The Blackhawks' Marian Hossa has three points in the last two games, and three goals and an assist in his past three against the Canucks.
