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Thanks to Crawford, Blackhawks get a point

Consider the Blackhawks fortunate to get out of Detroit with 1 point Saturday.

Credit goalie Corey Crawford for that.

If it were not for Crawford, the Hawks would have been run out of Joe Louis Arena in the first period when they were outshot by the Red Wings 21-4.

Thanks to Crawford, the Hawks trailed only 2-0, and it stayed that way until they woke up with a dominant third period.

“Terrible start to the game — too much standing around watching them,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

Jonathan Toews’ goal on a deflection with 51.7 seconds left in the third period sent the game to overtime, but it was all Red Wings in the extra session. They outshot the Hawks 9-0 and got the winning goal from Todd Bertuzzi with 39 seconds remaining.

Crawford made 40 saves in one of his best performances of the season.

With most Hawks playing as if they were still asleep, the Red Wings got goals from Tomas Holmstrom on a deflection and Bertuzzi in alone in the first period as Crawford was left to fend for himself.

After Holmstrom’s goal at 12:58 that opened the scoring, the Hawks were being outshot 17-2.

The Hawks did have a good chance to score in the first period when a bad bounce off the end boards landed on Michael Frolik’s stick in front. But with most of the net open, Frolik shot the puck right into goalie Jimmy Howard’s left pad.

“Good goal scorers put it in, and I didn’t,” Frolik told reporters.

Frolik has gone 14 games without a goal with only 5 for the season.

“Someone with confidence would’ve put it in there some way,” Quenneville said. “When you’re not, the net’s a little tighter.”

Hawks rookie Andrew Shaw got the only goal of the second period. It was the third goal in six games for the impressive Shaw.

The third period was all Hawks, who swarmed the Detroit zone the first six minutes but couldn’t get anything past Howard.

It looked as if the Hawks were in business at 6:28 when Drew Miller high-sticked Shaw and earned a double minor penalty. But the power play fizzled and actually took the momentum away from the Hawks.

“They were way better than us at the start of the third and actually Miller’s four-minute penalty probably helped us,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We finally got energy and got going and settled down.”

Toews’ 23rd goal that forced overtime came with Crawford pulled for a sixth attacker. Toews won a faceoff from Pavel Datsyuk then headed to the net. Marian Hossa’s shot hit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and then Toews before going in.

“I thought our guys really turned it up after that,” Babcock said. “We really dominated and the rest of overtime. Every time we play these guys it’s exciting. They’ve got a lot of good players and we do as well.”

On Bertuzzi’s winner in OT, all four Hawks on the ice — Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Hossa and Frolik — lost him in the slot on a rebound. It was Detroit’s 14th straight win at home, tying a club record set in 1965.

tsassone@dailyherald.com

Red Wings top Blackhawks 3-2 in OT