"The defence of the Vancouver Canucks was out to prove a point here on Sunday in Game 5 with the Blackhawks.

They were well on their way, with a solid first period against a Hawks team that came out flat, when the roof appeared to cave in.

Leading 2-0 on goals by blueliners Christian Ehrhoff and Kevin Bieksa, the Canucks were killing a penalty in the final seconds of the first period when key D-man Sami Salo was hit in front of the net by a Duncan Keith slapshot in the spot that most males would cringe at the thought of.

Salo lay on the ice writhing in agony for several minutes after the period ended and had to be helped to the Canucks' dressing room by Vancouver trainers still hunched over. He didn't return and it was reported that he was taken to Northwestern Hospital with a suspected ruptured testicle. If Salo can't play in Tuesday's Game 6, it'll be up to Aaron Rome, now healthy, to fill in.

While losing Salo – a key shutdown defenceman and penalty killer – will certainly hurt the Canucks if he misses Game 6 in Vancouver, the rest of the defence corps did yeoman work coping without him.

It even appeared the Canucks might be down to four defenders when Shane O'Brien was sliced open by the blade of Dustin Byfuglien's stick on a follow-through, but the Vancouver D-man didn't miss a shift. Of course, under those circumstance, he wasn't allowed to.

"I was all over Burnie (trainer Mike Burnstein)," said O'Brien, who was leaking blood like the proverbial stuck pig all the way to the bench. "I was telling him to do it as quick as he possibly could and he was telling me to calm down. He put to glue on it to stop the bleeding and I went back out there. That's playoff hockey."

Despite O'Brien, Bieksa, Ehrhoff and Alex Edler having to play more minutes than usual, the Canucks were able to slow down the vaunted Chicago attack and keep goalie Roberto Luongo's front porch cleaner than it's been since Game 1's 5-1 win."