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Hawks hope to emulate Wings' success at home

Wednesday, 05.20.2009 / 10:02 AM / Conference Finals: Detroit vs. Chicago

By Adam Kimelman - NHL.com Deputy Managing Editor

 
DETROIT -- The Chicago Blackhawks have talked during the first two games of the Western Conference Finals against Detroit about not wanting to get sucked into the Red Wings' style.

Now, they hope to imitate the Wings by doing to them what Detroit just did to the Hawks -- win two straight games at home.
After a two-day layoff, Games 3 and 4 will be at the United Center Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

"You're supposed to win at home, that's the way I'm going to look at it," defenseman Brian Campbell said. "We go back home now and we need to take care of our business at home."

The Blackhawks have been strong at home in the postseason, going 5-1, and their 24 home wins during the regular season tied for fifth in the Western Conference.

"We should be excited about getting back to the United Center," coach Joel Quenneville said. "Get the extra day off here to recapture some confidence and some enthusiasm and move forward."

What lies ahead is the daunting task of beating the defending Stanley Cup champions four times in the next five games.

The Blackhawks, however, aren't looking that far into the future.

"We want to beat them in one game and that's the next one and that's our concern," Quenneville said.

Their immediate goal is to take all the good things they did in Game 2 and build off them over the next two days, with the result hopefully being a victory in Game 3.

"We did some better things," said Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, who scored both of his team's goals in Game 2. "We played more the way we wanted to tonight. We can build off that, keep improving and every line can get better and hungrier to score and create more offense.

"It's easy to get down on yourself and look at things in a negative light, but we're going to stick together and keep that upbeat, excited attitude when we get to the rink (Wednesday).

“Tomorrow's another day. We're going to go back to work and not let this one sink in too much and disappoint us and depress us too much. I guess it's frustrating we couldn't come out with a win tonight. It would have been great to go home with a split but we've got our work cut out for us now. No pressure -- we just have to go out there and battle and play loose and just keep improving, keep bringing our game up a notch every single game."

While the visiting dressing room at Joe Louis Arena was pretty quiet, the Blackhawks say their confidence has not been shaken.

"We're a confident team," defenseman Duncan Keith said. "We've played well so far in the playoffs and I think we'll keep that confidence and keep believing in ourselves."

"We'll be fine," Campbell added. "There's no let-up in this team."

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]

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