Crawford helps Blackhawks shut down Blues 2-0

There's no denying it.

Corey Crawford is in a zone.

Every game, every time he steps out onto the ice, the Chicago Blackhawks' goaltender gives his team a far-better-than average chance to win, and he was a huge reason the Hawks snapped a modest two-game skid with a 2-0 victory over St. Louis on Sunday night at the United Center.

Crawford notched his league-leading seventh shutout of the season, stopping 25 shots, and the Hawks got goals from Artemi Panarin and Andrew Shaw to improve to 33-15-4.

“Getting it back on track tonight was important for us,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “I liked the response.”

Crawford is playing the best hockey of his career and has been one of the big stories all season for the defending champs. His 28 wins are second only to Washington's Braden Holtby's 30.

Quenneville, Andrew Shaw and Trevor van Riemsdyk all sang Crawford's praises in the postgame locker room.

As for the 31-year-old veteran netminder, he said nothing beats experience. He's anticipating where plays are going better. He's seeing the puck extremely well. And the D-men are all making life easier by limiting second chances and keeping plays to the outside.

Then there's the pregame preparation.

Crawford admitted that before he played with Ray Emery, he was much more “nonchalant” just before each game.

Then he saw what Emery was doing and it changed his whole approach.

“His preparation before games was unreal,” Crawford said. “As a goalie, I'd never seen a guy be so focused and ready before a game. And I was kind of doing the opposite … doing other stuff and not having a … physical routine that just kind of mentally gets you ready. Mentally you trick yourself into knowing that it's gametime and it's time to play.”

The listless Hawks allowed St. Louis to outshoot them 12-6 in the first period, but Crawford refused to let the Blues gain the upper hand.

“I thought their team looked tired in the first period and we didn't take advantage of it,” said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, whose team is now 6 points behind the Hawks in the standings.

St. Louis paid for it when Patrick Kane threw a sensational, backhanded cross-ice pass to Panarin. The Russian rookie buried a one-timer past Brian Elliott and the Hawks took a 1-0 lead with 4:34 left in the second period.

“Special play. The anticipation between the two of them is Sedin-like,” Quenneville said, referring to Vancouver's Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

Panarin's goal, his 17th, snapped a scoreless drought of 154 minutes, 43 seconds for the Hawks.

Shaw made it 2-0 when he scored on the power play by redirecting a Marian Hossa blast 4:56 into the third period.

As for Crawford, he's now on pace for 11 shutouts. In the last five full seasons, only New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist has recorded that many, accomplishing the feat in 2010-11. Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury led the league last year with 10.

“You can always count on him to make those big saves at the big moments when you need them most,” van Riemsdyk said of Crawford. “It's been awesome playing in front of him.”

Just as awesome as it has been for Hawks fans to watch Crawford evolve from a no-name goalie into one of the league's elite.

Night in. Night out.