A Spurt in Patrick Kane's Season of Growth Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Patrick Kane was congratulated by Andrew Shaw after scoring in double overtime Saturday to send Chicago to the finals. CHICAGO - The Campbell Bowl was wheeled onto the United Center ice Saturday night and presented to the Western Conference champion Blackhawks, the N.H.L."s best team during the regular season, who had just earned a trip to the Stanley Cup finals with a thrilling 4-3 double-overtime victory against the Los Angeles Kings. The shimmering silver trophy, however, was not the only bounty on the ice. Caps of all shapes, sizes and colors littered the neutral zone during the presentation ceremony. They paid homage to a particular Chicago star, Patrick Kane. Kane scored the series-clinching goal at 11 minutes 40 seconds of the second overtime of Game 5, taking a pass from Jonathan Toews and firing a one-timer past the outstretched glove of Jonathan Quick. Kane's third goal of the game ended a long, wild night and set up a Stanley Cup finals matchup with the Boston Bruins. Chicago will host Game 1 on Wednesday. "I think it's almost like I'm in a different zone, like in the twilight zone or something," Kane said after the game while wearing a gray suit and, quite appropriately, a cap of his own. I'm kind of out of it. It's definitely a good feeling, though. For Kane, the hat trick was the latest memorable moment in a season that began for him in Switzerland during the lockout. He played for a team in Biel, a town on the Swiss-French border, and lived with his mother during his time abroad. He earned a reputation as something of a party boy in his early years in the league, but this has been called a season of growth for Kane, a Buffalo native and a former No. 1 overall draft pick. The culmination came Saturday. Kane, 24, returned from Europe and was a catalyst for the Blackhawks" N.H.L.-record 24-game point streak to begin the season. He was fifth in the league with 55 points and 23 goals this season and led the N.H.L. with six shootout goals. He was also named a finalist for the Lady Byng trophy, awarded for sportsmanship and "gentlemanly conduct" on the ice, in recognition of his maturation. Kane, though, started these playoffs slowly. He did not score his first goal until Game 2 of the second round against the Detroit Red Wings and had only two goals in Chicago's first 15 postseason games. That is when Coach Joel Quenneville, after a 3-1 loss to the Kings in Game 3, publicly said he needed more from Kane. Kane responded by hitting the score sheet in Game 4 when he got a stick on a puck just as it was crossing the goal line on a shot by Bryan Bickell. The joke was that the shot would have been a goal with or without Kane's help. "Anything to get him going," Bickell, who has eight goals this postseason, said with a smile before Game 5. Kane added: "I expected more from myself. My teammates probably did, too. I tried to get back to the basics. Want the puck, get the puck, try and make plays. Then came Saturday, when Kane delivered one of the great individual performances in N.H.L. playoff history. He played 41 shifts and nearly 29 minutes, firing five shots on goal to produce his three scores. "That was more than more," Quenneville said. It was certainly an outstanding game by him. Kane put Chicago ahead by 2-0 early in the first period when he cleaned up a rebound in front of the Kings" net and patiently measured his shot before beating Quick with an elevated wrist shot. He then appeared to deliver the winner with less than four minutes to play in regulation when he cut from the blue line, took a nifty pass from Bickell and buried a shot from point-blank range. The Kings, though, tied the score with 10 seconds remaining in the third period. "What a feeling, what a game for him," forward Patrick Sharp said. I know he's been pressing, trying to put the puck in the net, and getting a goal in L.A. probably took a lot of weight off him. During the Blackhawks" run to the Stanley Cup in 2010, Kane was a wide-eyed 21-year-old in his third year in the league. He shunned the playoff beard tradition mostly because he could not muster much scruff on his cheeks. Still, he proved that the magnitude of the stage did not faze him, as he scored the Cup-clinching goal in overtime of Game 6 in Philadelphia. This year, his signature mullet is back, but Kane has a full beard, too. And there he was after Game 5, all grown up and all smiles, answering questions about his journey and his team's: from down by three games to one to Detroit just a round earlier to four games from a second championship. Asked to compare the night of his series-clinching hat trick with his Stanley Cup winner in 2010, Kane replied, "Right now, it feels like the best."