CHICAGO | The Blackhawks' No. 1 line, anchored by captain Jonathan Toews, won't lack for motivation when it takes the ice tonight in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Toews doesn't have to wait to be chastened by others, because he'll do it to himself. Sticking in his craw is the stark fact he and linemates Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien were blanked on the scoresheet and ranked a minus-9 during the Flyers' Game 1 orgy of goals that ultimately ended in a 6-5 Hawks' victory.

"All three of us know it's not as much what they did as it is was what we didn't do on the ice," Toews said Sunday.

"I think we were maybe chasing the puck a little bit too much. We weren't protecting it, and we weren't supporting each other. The less we think about things, the more we'll create."

An interesting trend continued. The Hawks have started several of their playoff series slowly, then adjusted to their opponent and picked up momentum as the series proceeded. Toews theorized in this case, the Hawks had to get over the hoopla of starting the Finals before buckling down to business.

"We went over a lot of things we're going to do better," he said. "We're excited over getting a lot of the nerves out, and the excitement is behind us.

"Now we can just go play hockey and play the way we know how to play."

The Toews-Kane-Byfuglien line has all the Hawks' scoring leadership throughout the playoffs, so they can be excused for an off night. In the meantime, the Hawks' other lines came up big. Once again, center Dave Bolland's crew more than carried its weight with Bolland tallying a short-handed breakaway goal and Tomas Kopecky, subbing for the ailing Andrew Ladd, nailing the game-winner in the third period.

"We're all proud having Kopecky step in," Bolland said. "Losing a guy like Laddy is pretty tough. But having Kopy step in and taking a role, it's great to see him do that."

Goalie Antti Niemi, of course, will need to stop some of the close-in shots and rebounds that bedeviled him in Game 1. But his teammates believe Niemi is the least of his problems. He calmed down the pace of the Finals opener by blanking the Flyers in the third period, while the Hawks' defense clamped down on the visitors' shot totals.

"We know he's been solid," Toews said. "He's made some big saves for us in every single game. It's pretty evident our team's game was real sloppy (in Game 1).

Although the Hawks can watch the Flyers on video all they want, nothing substitutes for hands-on experience -- literally. Toews and Co. have finally taken the measure of the last roadblock to the Stanley Cup.

"We know that they've got several lines that can score," Toews said. "We'll be ready for that. Every single one of our lines has to hold their guard up a little bit and play a little bit smarter defensively. They're a good team. We knew that. There's no coincidence why they've come this far.

"We'll focus on our own game a little more. We've always keyed on other teams' best players. But our priority's always been making sure we're ready to play.

"We're not happy with our performance."

Toews does suggest a strategy for tonight that seemed evident even in Game 1 -- play as desperate as the Flyers appear to do.

"We can kind of have that mentality that we can pretend we're down a game," he said. "We're not satisfied with the way we started this series. Being up 1-0 means nothing."

STANLEY CUP FINALS

Flyers at Blackhawks

When: 7 p.m. today.

TV/Radio: NBC (Ch. 5)/WGN-AM (720).

Series: Blackhawks lead 1-0.

Complete Cup coverage inside

Troy Brouwer carries double load -- for Hawks and his father. Page C2