Raanta stays; Darling sent to Rockford

The battle for the Blackhawks backup goalie spot has been won by Antti Raanta.

For the time being, at least.

The Hawks on Friday reassigned Lemont native Scott Darling to Rockford, leaving Raanta as the backup to Corey Crawford, who is expected to be back in net Saturday night in Toronto. Crawford had been sidelined with an upper-body injury.

Darling, 25, posted a 2-1-0 record with a .933 save percentage and an 1.98 goals-against average in three consecutive starts. Raanta is 1-2 with a .933 save percentage and a 2.03 GAA.

"I thought he was OK; I liked the way he battled throughout the game," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Darling after the Hawks' 5-4 shootout victory in Ottawa.

"He's a battler, and I think you saw in the shootout how he battled right down to the end."

Q's ode to Big Hoss:

"He does it not just production-wise offensively, but he does it by playing on both sides of the puck - which makes that 1,000 points pretty impressive.

"He represents how you want to play. He's a professional as well as you can explain the definition of a good pro.

"That's Hossa."

There it is:

Though there were plenty of struggles in the Hawks' win in Ottawa, there were also a couple of bright spots as well - none bigger than Marian Hossa notching his 1,000th point.

Also big, and perhaps boding well for the future, was that the Hawks finally found their scoring touch. And some of it was the direct result of doing the dirty work.

"A lot of goals around the net," Patrick Sharp said. "A lot of ugly goals. It was what we've been talking about all week.

"Hopefully there's more of that to come."

He said it:

"Uhh … he was for sure fourth."

- A grinning Joel Quenneville, when asked if he thought about using Marian Hossa as one of the first three on the ice in the Hawks' shootout victory in Ottawa.