Turco nets first win since Nov. 17
Marian Hossa's comeback took a backseat to Marty Turco's Sunday night at the United Center.
While Hossa played more like the Hossa of early in the season in his return from 10 games on the shelf with 2 assists, it was Turco in a surprise start who picked up his teammates early and went on to post a 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
With Corey Crawford unable to play because of the flu, Turco made 26 saves in his first start since Dec. 13 and won for the first time since Nov. 17 at Edmonton in the opener of the circus road trip.
Turco lost his shutout when Derick Brassard scored with 2:26 to play.
“It's too bad because I think Marty was our best player tonight and he deserved the shutout,” Hossa said. “It's too bad the last couple minutes he got scored on.”
Turco made 14 of his saves in the first period when the Hawks showed some rust in their defensive game from being off the ice for three days.
“I thought he was a big part of the win tonight,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I thought he was big in that first period and gave us a chance to get our feet under us.
“It was a very important for a lot of reasons, but it was good to see Marty get a win.”
Turco said it was more important that the Hawks won their fourth straight to improve to 20-14-3.
“We needed it,” Turco said. “It was just big for us. It feels good, period.”
The Hawks were outshot 14-8 in the first period but escaped with a 1-0 lead thanks to Turco and Tomas Kopecky's goal at the seven-minute mark set up by Hossa.
Hossa also assisted on Patrick Sharp's key power-play goal early in the third period that gave the Hawks some breathing room at 2-0.
“He had the puck a lot,” Quenneville said of Hossa. “He made a couple nice plays and was dangerous and he skated well. He's so useful in all areas of our game and compliments the way we want to play.”
Sharp added another goal later in the third period, giving him 20 for the season in 36 games.
In addition to winning four in a row for just the second time this season, the Hawks improved to 8-2 in their last 10 games at the UC after a 4-7 start.
“It's been better,” Quenneville said. “We really had a slow start here at home and I think that's something we've got to make sure, that we take advantage of our home games here the rest of the season because we're in a tough spot.
“I don't think we should be satisfied where we're at. We need to make sure we do pay attention to the importance of home ice and make sure we try to get points each and every game (which) could put us where we want to get to.”