Blackhawks like life on the road

After finishing off Vancouver in the second round and then beating San Jose twice on the Sharks' home ice, can Chicago duplicate their stellar form at home?

Antti Niemi, the Chicago goalkeeper, had 69 saves in the first two games of the Blackhawks' series against San Jose.

CHICAGO // The Blackhawks have enjoyed living out of a suitcase. What a road trip they had, finishing off Vancouver in the second round and then beating San Jose twice on the Sharks' home ice for a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. Can they duplicate their stellar play tonight in Game 3 at home, where they are just 3-3 in the post-season, compared to 7-1 on the road?

"There's a lot of expectations [at home] from family and friends, people want to be a part of this whole thing. When you're on the road, it's just you and the guys. In that way, it's a little bit easier," said Jonathan Toews, the Chicago captain, on Wednesday. "But no one's looking at that as an excuse. Like I said before, we can be happy about the last two games we played on the road because that's big. It's a huge disadvantage to play in someone else's building, especially in San Jose, with the noise in that building. But I think we can all forget about that and really get excited about what we can do and how good we can play in our own building."

The Blackhawks have attributed their success away from home to bonding, hanging out together off the ice, going to dinner, playing video games and then taking a simplified approach at the rink. During the regular season, they had a franchise-record 23 wins on the road and their 29 home victories were one shy of a club record. They expect the Sharks to come out with a fury tonight, hoping to combat the Blackhawks' speed while trying to make the raucous crowd sit down and stay quiet.

The Blackhawks played tough defence during the first two games with a line led by Dave Bolland, the centre, going against the Sharks' top trio featuring Joe Thornton, who ended up slashing Bolland in the face-off circle. "I think he was just kind of frustrated with us back-checking, just always being around him. I don't think he likes it," Bolland said. Antti Niemi, the Chicago goaltender, has played like a play-off veteran rather than a 26-year-old rookie in his first post-season.

He had 69 saves in the first two games. The Sharks will try to get more traffic around the net tonight. "We haven't played these guys since January. We don't have that hatred for them and we should," said San Jose's Scott Nichol. "It's a fine line where you don't want to cost your team a penalty or a powerplay. There hasn't been too much cheap stuff or running into goalies or things like that. We're not going to change but we can probably play a little meaner or nastier between the whistles."

Todd McLellan, the Sharks coach, is not concerned about being nasty as much as he is about being more aggressive. "We'd like to be physical, we'd like to get after their defencemen down below the goal lines and prevent them from jumping in," McLellan said. * AP