Crawford gets 1st shutout of the season in 5-0 rout of Islanders
Despite winning four of their previous five games, the New York Islanders came to the United Center on Sunday night one of the worst teams in the NHL.
Perhaps finally learning from earlier home losses to doormats New Jersey and Edmonton, the Blackhawks did what good teams are supposed to do: they ran a bad Islanders team out of the building.
Getting goals from three of their biggest go-to guys in Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane, the Hawks routed the Islanders 5-0 with Corey Crawford posting his first shutout of the season.
Crawford made 29 saves, 14 of them in the third period.
“All the saves he had to make were high quality,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They had some scoring chances and the ones they had were all alone on breakaways, open-side plays; he made several key stops. He was solid.”
Crawford has been a lifesaver for the Hawks up until now, helping save the season from going way off the tracks. The rookie is 13-3-1 in 17 starts since Nov. 14.
“I had to make a couple saves, but our guys played well tonight,” Crawford said. “I thought we had some dominating shifts.”
Hossa had a goal and 2 assists, setting up scores by Dave Bolland and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
“I thought Hoss had a great game,” Quenneville said.
With all four lines clicking, the Hawks put 45 shots on Islanders goalie Nathan Lawson.
“I thought tonight we were dominating from beginning to the end,” Hossa said. “Everybody chipped in and we jumped on them right away. Lately the starts weren't good enough and tonight we wanted to make sure.”
Sharp opened the scoring on a power play at 4:52 of the first period thanks to a nice pass from Kane.
The Hawks scored four times in the second period, starting with Hossa's 10th goal at 2:10. Kane finished a nice passing play with Jonathan Toews and Hjalmarsson at 7:19, with Hjalmarsson getting his own goal at 16:24.
“We haven't played this type of game for a long time (when) we didn't have to worry about the score,” Hossa said. “We were dominating right from the beginning and I think we can build on this win.
“We were passing the puck and moving and building on each shift to become dominating in their zone.”
The Hawks accomplished their goal of getting 4 must-have weekend points in games with Ottawa and the Islanders. They play more games this week — two at home — before earning a five-day break in the schedule.
Sharp's goal was his 25th of the season and seventh in the last eight games. He also had an assist for his 14th multiple-point game of the season.
Sharp will find out Tuesday if he is one of the 21 forwards added to play in the All-Star Game.
“He's had a great season and has been a big part of our offense all season,” Quenneville said. “It would be nice is Sharpie did get to go.”
Tim Sassone's game tracker
<b>Three stars</b>
<b>1. Corey Crawford, Hawks:</b> Made some huge stops among his 29 for his first shutout of the season.
<b>2. Marian Hossa, Hawks:</b> Plus-3 with a goal and 2 assists.
<b>3. Niklas Hjalmarsson, Hawks:</b> A goal, assist and 2 blocked shots.
<b>It's a start</b>
The Hawks were short-handed just once but killed the penalty, snapping a streak of allowing 4 power-play goals in their last four short-handed situations in the previous two games.