Hinostroza, fourth line come up huge in Blackhawks win

It's been a dreary, dismal season for most Blackhawks who are assigned to play on the fourth line.

Coach Joel Quenneville gives this trio of forwards about six, seven, maybe eight minutes a game and they generally produce next to nothing on a nightly basis.

Well, that certainly wasn't the case Tuesday as Dennis Rasmussen, Nick Schmaltz and Andrew Desjardins helped stake the Hawks to a 2-1 lead after one period, and their team went on to claim a thrilling 6-4 victory over host Colorado.

The Avs beat Corey Crawford three times in the second period to take a 4-3 lead, but Vinnie Hinostroza scored twice in three minutes in the third to allow the Hawks (28-14-5) to beat a team that has lost 13 of 15.

Schmaltz, who was just called up from Rockford where he was asked to shoot more often, scored his second goal of the season 2:38 into the first period, and he assisted on Brent Seabrook's tally 10 minutes later.

"He had a great start to the game," Quenneville told reporters. "He had some stretches that will be good for his learning curve. … He had the puck a lot, he was shooting the puck, had pace to his game. He did well."

Rasmussen also had an assist on Seabrook's goal - a blast from just inside the blue line - and Desjardins was a force on the forecheck, keeping pucks alive and being more active than he's been in past games.

Quenneville made some significant changes, most notably moving Marian Hossa from the first line to the third with Tanner Kero and Hinostroza. Richard Panik and Ryan Hartman moved up to play with Jonathan Toews.

Toews' line didn't produce, but the third line was electric with Kero scoring twice (the second an empty-netter) and also assisting on Hinostroza's game-winner at 8:11 of the third period. Hossa, meanwhile, was a plus-4 and had 3 assists to give him 602 in his career.

"Looking for some secondary scoring and tonight they produce all of those," Quenneville said of his bottom six wingers. "It was a fun night for them, and certainly a great third period and a big comeback for us."

Said Schmaltz: "You can't rely on the top six to score every night. Those guys pretty much do, but they're going to go through stretches where they don't score so that's when other guys have to step up. It was a big effort by everyone tonight." Quenneville said he considered pulling Crawford, who made 19 saves, but wanted to see the veteran fight through the adversity. The 3 second-period goals certainly weren't all Crawford's fault as a series of dreadful turnovers led to tallies by Blake Comeau, Matt Nieto and Matt Duchene.

Hinostroza saved the day, though, by knotting the game at 4-4 at 5:10 of the third when he scored on a breakaway that was set in motion on a feed from Seabrook.

"I just saw it flying through the air and I was like, 'This could be a breakaway,'" Hinostroza said. "So just started trying to skate fast."

Hinostroza scored again on his next shift, tapping in the puck after receiving a perfect pass from Kero.

Toews could have had the final goal, but he unselfishly passed to Kero, who scored into an empty net with 11 seconds left to complete the scoring.