Blackhawks clinch playoff spot with win over Canucks
What a difference a week made for the Blackhawks.
After losing at home a week ago to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Hawks were surpassed by the Minnesota Wild for third in the Central Division. It was their second loss in a row, and if the skid continued there was a chance they could slip right out of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A week later, after a 3-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night at the United Center, the Hawks (47-24-6) have punched their postseason ticket for a seventh straight season.
They've won three straight games and now have the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators squarely in focus in a four-game sprint for the division crown.
"We weren't happy with how we played last week, so we told each other we need to be better here (at the) end of the season," said Marcus Kruger, who scored a goal and assisted on another by rookie Teuvo Terevainen.
"It's only going to be important games here, end of the year, so we want to make sure we're ready for the playoffs and we want to push the teams ahead of us, too, and try to get up there in the standings."
It wasn't easy against the Canucks, who came into the game with a five-game winning streak in road games and won the first two game of their current trip at St. Louis and Nashville. Vancouver, clinging to second in the Pacific Division, also beat the Blackhawks in each of the first two meetings.
The most recent was Feb. 11 in Chicago, when the Sedin twins combined to produce 2 late goals by Daniel Sedin in a 5-4 overtime victory, including the game-winner in OT. Goals were harder to come by for both sides this time, but especially for the Canucks.
Corey Crawford, who made 35 saves, came up with a number of great stops to keep the game tied at 1-1 in the second and third. He held the Canucks off until captain Jonathan Toews and Kruger scored goals 2:27 apart in the third to secure the win.
Teravainen scored at 6:51 of the first period to give the Hawks a quick 1-0 lead, but Vancouver's Derek Dorsett tied it at 1-1 after a bad turnover by Michal Rozsival set him up with a great scoring chance.
The Hawks have qualified for seven straight playoffs for the first time since 1991-97, and they have their exciting victory last weekend in Winnipeg to thank for their sudden turnaround. Toews scored with 31 seconds left to win that one, which started this three-game streak.
"That gave us a lot of excitement in our game and put us in a much better spot," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I don't know whether we were tentative, whether we were anxious or nervous, but we definitely had to look at the standings, knowing that we'd better get our act together here, because we're running out of time.
"(Winnipeg) would've been a point behind us, and we were behind Minnesota at that stage. Things turned around quickly, but our guys, they like to find a way."