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Marian Hossa looked skyward and raised his arms to thank the hockey Gods. He had found his scoring touch after 26 long days and eight frustrating games.

It was Hossa’s goal that sparked enough offence late in the second period because fourth-liner Ben Keen added another goal 28 seconds later in the Blackhawks 2-1 win to take a 2-0 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers in the best-of-seven Stanley Cup final on Monday night.

This is Hossa’s third consecutive trip to the final after being shut out in journeys with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008 and the Detroit Red Wings last spring. He has played well defensively for the Blackhawks in the previous three rounds, but scored only twice.

When the 2010 Stanley Cup final opened its doors Hossa was the best player on the ice with a two-help effort in Chicago’s wild 6-5 victory on Saturday. He continued his solid play with linemates Patrick Sharp and Troy Brouwer. They now have accounted for four of the Chicago’s eight goals in the past two games.

The Flyers made for an nervous third period for the Blackhawks and their capacity crowd of 22,275 at the United Center when Simon Gagne scored a power-play goal 5:20 into the final period to snap Chicago goalie Antti Niemi’s shutout streak at 67 minutes 31 seconds.

But the Finn was solid the rest of the way to preserve the victory with Game 3 set for Philadelphia on Wednesday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 8 p.m. ET).

The Flyers outshot their opponents 34-26 and 31-17 in the final 40 minutes.

After the finalists scored a combined 11 goals in the curtain raiser, it was an simple bet this game would be contested with a defence-first mindset. The game was goal-less after the first period and the Blackhawks loved a 2-0 advantage after 40 minutes.

In the first, the Blackhawks finally had a power-play opportunity. In fact, they had a pair of man-advantage situations, but could not take the lead. Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux had the best scoring opportunity, He hit the post from the slot on a delayed penalty to Chicago.

The Flyers took over the game briefly in the second period, but Niemi was sharp. He stopped Philadelphia’s Mike Richards on a breakaway and made wonderful glove-hand stop on Flyers forward Arron Asham.

Late in the second period, Hossa scored on a rebound and Keen beat Flyers goalie Michael Leighton with a wrist shot high on his glove hand.

As expected, Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette made a couple alterations to his lineup. He inserted pest Dan Carcillo and defenceman Oskars Bartulis for James Van Riemsdyk and Ryan Parent, respectively.

Brandon Morrow gave up just one run on three hits through seven innings, as the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Monday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Among all the talented young pitchers the Toronto Blue Jays have, no one has an arm as electric as Brandon Morrow.

The six-foot-three right-hander has the stuff to overpower and dominate, which is exactly what he did Monday night in a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Morrow took a small bit off his velocity to gain more control and carried a no-hitter into the sixth, allowing just a run on three hits and two walks over seven innings versus the struggling American League East leaders to open a crucial stretch for his team.

“Leading up to this game everybody’s been throwing lights out and I reckon everybody kind of feeds off that,” said Morrow. “You see how Shaun (Marcum) and Ricky (Romero) are having their success, watching them throw to spots and mix up counts and pitches, and I’m still working on my game and on what works best.

“I’m starting to reckon hitting my spot works better than throwing it by a guy.”

The Blue Jays, who won their fourth straight and improved to 31-22 before a disappointing crowd of 11,335, play the Rays (34-18) twice more at home before hosting the New York Yankees for three.

After that it’s off to St. Petersburg, Fla., for three more versus the Rays. Interleague play then resumes for Toronto with some of the best the National League has to offer, including Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Francisco.

That will carry the Blue Jays into July and their results over the coming month will go a long way in determining how much stock to place into their spring-time surge.

“It’s going to say something,” manager Cito Gaston conceded before the game. “If you play terrible, you can play yourself right out of it. If you play excellent, you can play yourself right into it. We’ll know one way or the other once it’s said and done.”

Monday’s victory was a fantastic start, especially since the Blue Jays came in a combined 2-7 versus the Rays and Boston Red Sox, two of their primary rivals, this season. Tampa has lost six of its last eight.

A brilliant Morrow (4-4) was backed by Adam Lind’s two-run homer in the first off Matt Garza (5-4), who had been a Blue Jays nemesis but lost to them for the second time this season. Lind’s homer pushed the Jays’ club record homer total for a single month to 54.

A resurgent Aaron Hill added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 3-0. That run proved pivotal when the Rays scored a pair in the eighth on B.J. Upton’s RBI triple and Willy Aybar’s run-scoring groundout.

Shawn Camp cleaned up Scott Downs’ problems in the eighth, and Kevin Gregg pitched the ninth for his 14th save, escaping unscathed after allowing a one-out triple to Evan Longoria. He was cut down at the plate by shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who fielded a sharp grounder by John Jaso.

“It got pretty exciting,” said Lind. “It’s a win in the division, that’s the most vital thing. Any time you have a win like that it’s fantastic vibes in the clubhouse.”

It was Morrow who set the tone.

Like many young power pitchers, the 25-year-ancient at times has distress harnessing his repertoire, but against the Rays he threw strikes, worked quickly and commanded the strike zone after consciously deciding to take something off.

He effectively mixed in a strong curve and changeup to go along with a fastball that occasionally touched 96 miles per hour, but sat mostly around 92 or 93. He struck out just one, and rather than try to blow away the Rays, he exploited their aggressiveness by inducing weak contact and letting his defence do the rest.

“I reckon out of my last five outings, the times I’ve backed off a small and really focused on keeping the ball down, keeping it to the corners, I’ve pitched better,” said Morrow. “I’ve calmed myself down and relaxed and made my pitches instead of overthrowing and trying to strike everybody out.”

The outing was by far Morrow’s best since joining the Blue Jays in a December trade that sent reliever Brandon League and a prospect to Seattle. Though he had pitched in parts of three huge-league seasons prior to this one, Monday’s start was just the 26th of his career.

The Blue Jays strongly believe he’s just scratching the surface.

“I’ve had better stuff, meaning a nastier slider or a better fastball,” Morrow said. “But I reckon this is probably my best game in terms of making pitches, not trying to throw that nasty curveball and instead just flipping it in for a strike.”

Brandon Morrow gave up just one run on three hits through seven innings, as the Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Monday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Among all the talented young pitching the Toronto Blue Jays have, no one has an arm as electric as Brandon Morrow.

The 6-3 right-hander has the stuff to overpower and dominate, which is exactly what he did Monday night in a 3-2 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays.

Morrow took a no-hitter into the sixth, allowed just a run on three hits and two walks over seven innings, and generally cut up the struggling American League East leaders to open what is a crucial stretch for his team.

The Blue Jays, who won their fourth straight and improved to 31-22 before a disappointing crowd of 11,335, play the Rays (34-18) twice more at home before hosting the New York Yankees for three.

After that it’s off to St. Petersburg, Fla., for three more versus Tampa Bay. Interleague play then resumes for Toronto with some of the best the National League has to offer, including Philadelphia, St. Louis and San Francisco.

That will carry the Blue Jays into July and their results over the coming month will go a long way in determining how much stock to place into their spring-time surge.

“It’s going to say something,” manager Cito Gaston conceded before the game. “If you play terrible, you can play yourself right out of it. If you play excellent, you can play yourself right into it. We’ll know one way or the other once it’s said and done.”

Monday’s victory was a fantastic start, especially since the Blue Jays came in a combined 2-7 versus the Rays and Boston Red Sox, two of their primary rivals, this season. Tampa has lost six of its last eight.

A brilliant Morrow (4-4) was backed by Adam Lind’s two-run homer in the first off Matt Garza (5-4), who had been a Blue Jays nemesis but lost to them for the second time this season. Lind’s homer pushed the Jays’ club record homer total for a single month to 54.

A resurgent Aaron Hill added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 3-0. That run proved pivotal when the Rays scored a pair in the eighth on B.J. Upton’s RBI triple and Willy Aybar’s run-scoring groundout.

Shawn Camp cleaned up Scott Downs’ problems in the eighth, and Kevin Gregg pitched the ninth for his 14th save, escaping unscathed after allowing a one-out triple to Evan Longoria.

But it was Morrow who set the tone.

Like many young power pitchers, the 25-year-ancient at times has distress harnessing his repertoire, but against the Rays he threw strikes, worked quickly and commanded the strike zone.

He effectively mixed in a strong curve and changeup to go along with a fastball that occasionally touched 96 miles per hour but sat 92-93. He struck out just one, and rather than try to blow away the Rays, he exploited their aggressiveness by inducing weak contact and letting his defence do the rest.

The outing was by far Morrow’s best since joining the Blue Jays in a December trade that sent reliever Brandon League and a prospect to Seattle. Though he had pitched in parts of three huge-league seasons prior to this one, Monday’s start was just the 26th of his career.

The Blue Jays strongly believe he’s just scratching the surface.