Crawford continues to wow fans with 3-0 shutout of Ottawa

Asked to explain why he has been so dominant at the United Center this season, Corey Crawford didn't exactly dazzle us with eye-popping quotes after the Blackhawks blanked the Ottawa Senators 3-0 on Sunday night at the United Center.

“We're playing with the puck a lot more in our home games.”

Zzzzzz.

“Our defense is solid.”

Snore.

“Other than that I can't really tell you.”

OK, so we'll give the understated Crawford a pass for not wowing us in the postgame locker room.

Because he's certainly wowed Hawks fans all season by:

• Allowing just 30 goals in 19 home starts, a 1.58 average. (Take out a 6-5 OT loss to St. Louis and that number shrinks to a minuscule 1.33 per game).

• Shutting out four of the last seven opponents at the United Center.

• Allowing zero or 1 goal in six of his last nine home starts.

Crawford made 26 saves Sunday as the Hawks improved to 23-13-4 overall and 15-5-1 at home.

“He's had a good stretch here,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “Sporadically they came at him, but certainly he's been doing a real good job for us.”

Duncan Keith snapped the scoreless tie in a yawner of a game to that point by blasting a shot from just inside the blue line at 8:13 of the second period.

Artem Anisimov made it 2-0 at 6:01 of the third when he pounded in a loose puck in front of the net. It was Anisimov's 15th goal of the season and third in as many games.

Andrew Desjardins closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal, his fourth tally in the last three games.

Crawford's biggest save came with 1:47 remaining in the second period when he went post-to-post to deny Max McCormick, who fired a shot after taking a pass from Curtis Lazar.

“I got a good read,” Crawford said. “I saw (Lazar's) blade turn over and I felt like he was passing it to the guy backdoor. I just got a real good read on that one and was able to push and be aggressive with my pad and blocker.”

Sunday's win was Crawford's 300th regular-season game of his career. He sports a 167-89-36 record and, of course, has won a pair of Stanley Cups.

“It's just been fun the last five years in here. It's been awesome to play in Chicago,” Crawford said. “It's just gone by so fast, though.”

Said Quenneville: “Great progression to his career. Goaltenders seem to get better with age. He's still following a nice path where there seems to be improvement each and every year.”

And to Hawks fans, there's nothing at all boring about that.

• Follow John on Twitter @johndietzdh