The Stanley Cup Finals are off to a roaring start as the Chicago Blackhawks have taken the first two games of the series from the Philadelphia Flyers. Game One on Saturday night was a slugfest, as neither team seemed able to maintain any sort of gameplan. Instead, scoring yo-yo-ed between the two teams as both starting goalies surrendered five goals apiece. Troy Brouwer scored two goals while Kris Versteeg, Dave Bolland, and Patrick Sharp provided the other Chicago goals through the second period. The Flyers would pull goalie Patrick Leighton after Brouwer's second goal gave the Hawks a brief 5-4 lead. The game was deadlocked at five apiece entering the third. Tomas Kopecky would score the sixth Hawk goal off of backup goalie Brian Boucher. Kopecky was only playing due to the injury to Andrew Ladd and hadn't played for five games, but he didn't show any rust at all. Final Score: 6-4 Hawks

Game One was sloppy on both sides. The Hawks' defense was especially suspect and many of the Flyer goals were the result of turnovers. Niemi wasn't as sharp as he had been in the San Jose series and that coupled with the sloppy play led to such a high scoring game. Both teams vowed that Game Two would be a more polished affair.

True to their word, the second matchup was a lower-scoring contest. Game Two was also more physical, with the Flyers adding volatile winger Daniel Cacillo to the mix. There were a lot more dustups and some heavy hitting on both sides. In the end, as it has for most of the postseason, it came down to Antti Niemi and his 32 saves. The young Finn stopped all but one Flyer shot. Luckily, Marion Hossa and Ben Eager combined to give the Hawks the one goal edge over their Eastern Conference opponents, scoring within seconds of each other in the second period. Niemi was beaten on a power play early in the third period, but he made the 2-1 lead stand up, stopping 14 shots in the final period alone. Final Score 2-1 Hawks.

The series now moves to Philadelphia. If the Hawks are going to continue their success, they need to tighten up the defense, which while better than in Game One, still allowed the Flyers too many opportunities. As good as Niemi has been, those kind of shooting opportunities will eventually lead to Philadelphia goals. It was nice to see Marion Hossa score last night. He's been a standout player in the playoffs, doing a lot of the little things to help the Hawks win, but has few goals to show for his efforts. One thing I'm sick to death of hearing about is the so-called "Hossa curse" or that Hossa doesn't show up in the playoffs. A few more big games from the Slovakian should put that nonsense to bed.