Hawks winning games with third-period rallies

The Blackhawks are 3-2 after five games, with all of their victories having something in common.

The Hawks have rallied from deficits in the third period to win each time.

In Saturday's 2-1 win over Dallas, the Hawks outshot the Stars 20-8 in the third period and got the tying goal from Robert Lang with two seconds to play. They then won in overtime.

"We've worked hard in (training) camp, and I think it showed," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "Our conditioning is good."

Both wins over Detroit were comeback victories, including Friday's 3-2 triumph at Joe Louis Arena.

"Lately, the third period has been our best period," Jonathan Toews said.

Lang credits the young legs of rookies Toews and Patrick Kane and others with helping fuel the third-period comebacks.

"We have a young team, so those are the benefits when you play three games in four nights," Lang said. "We just sort of used that to our advantage (Saturday against Dallas). We were skating a lot better than them and sort of put them on their heels and kept them there."

Home-ice help: The crowd Saturday at the United Center was announced at only 11,868, but it sounded bigger in the third period when the Hawks dominated the Stars.

"We felt a lot of energy," Denis Savard said. "We had a decent crowd and our fans helped us out in the third period."

That's two crowds of fewer than 12,000 in two games after more than 18,000 watched the Hawks beat Detroit in the home opener.

The players hope that a few more wins at home will bring out more fans.

"It was good for our fans to see us work hard like that," Jason Williams said after Saturday's stirring comeback. "I think they appreciate something like that."

Forgotten Lalime: Overshadowed by Saturday's dramatic comeback and the play of Dallas rookie goalie Tobias Stephan was the solid work of Hawks goaltender Patrick Lalime, who stopped 17 of 18 shots in winning his first start of the season.

"We made a big save when it was 1-0 and kept us in," Denis Savard said. "(Down) 2-0 is it's pretty tough to come back against a team like Dallas. They defend a lead as good as anyone in the league."

Lalime tried not to pay attention to what Stephan was doing at the other end, stopping 38 of 40 Hawks shots.

"I focus on my own thing and not let him get in my head, too," Lalime said.