Salo leads Canucks to win

Sami Salo scored on a three-on-one rush with 1:13 remaining, and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3, on Thursday night in the Western Conference semifinal series opener after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period.

After Nikolai Khabibulin made a sliding save on Steve Bernier’s one-timer, the trailing Salo was all alone to tap in the rebound.

Patrick Kane scored twice for Chicago, and David Bolland tied it with 5:29 left.

Ryan Johnson scored into an empty net with 15.5 seconds left to wrap up the victory. Pavol Demitra scored on a power play, and Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler scored even-strength goals for Vancouver, 16-1-1 at home since the start of February.

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo made 28 saves.

Luongo had a league-best 1.15 goals-against average and .962 save percentage in a first-round sweep of the St. Louis Blues.