Shaw provides needed spark for Blackhawks

Coming off a debacle of a loss at Detroit and trailing 2-1 in the first period at home to Dallas 10 days ago, Andrew Shaw decided to take things into his own hands.

Specifically, a sharp right hook.

The scrappy forward dropped the gloves with the Stars' Antoine Roussel, won the decision, and in the process provided what Patrick Kane called the turning point in what would be a 6-2 Blackhawks victory.

"It felt like the boys needed that; we hadn't had something like that all year," Shaw said. "I needed that myself, too, to try to get fired up and get things moving."

Since then, the Hawks have won three of four on the circus trip with their only loss coming Sunday at the hands of Vancouver.

Shaw missed the first three games of the trip with an upper-body injury but was back in the lineup Wednesday in Colorado and again provided just the spark the Hawks needed after a drubbing by the Canucks, scoring the middle goal in a 3-2 victory over the Avs.

"It stinks watching," Shaw said afterward. "I just wanted to do as much as I could to help, brought as much energy as I could. It felt great."

In addition to scoring his first goal in quite awhile, Shaw put 5 shots on goal and won a season-high 71 percent (10 of 14) of his faceoffs.

"I thought he was excellent," coach Joel Quenneville said. "He scored a big goal, and I thought he had a real strong game."

Now the task is to finish off the trip on a strong note this weekend in California.

"We've got momentum," Shaw said. "We've got to play the same way we did (Wednesday) in the next two games."

The numbers:

Brent Seabrook collected an assist on Jonathan Toews' goal Wednesday. It was Seabrook's 300th NHL point. … Patrick Kane assisted on all 3 goals against the Avs. Kane leads the team in points (21) and is tied for the team lead in assists (13). … Marian Hossa, who assisted on Andrew Shaw's goal, had a game-high 9 shots.

He said it:

"I don't think I've ever see as many scrambles in front of the net as I did tonight."

- Corey Crawford after Wednesday's win over Colorado