Lalime, Lang lift Hawks
DENVER -- It appeared the Blackhawks had a number of things in their favor Friday night.
In addition to arriving at the Pepsi Center on a two-game winning the streak, the Hawks faced a Colorado Avalanche team minus three of its top offensive players in leading scorer Paul Stastny, Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth -- all on the injury list.
It wasn't easy, but the Hawks took advantage of the situation and beat the Avs 2-1 in a shootout on Robert Lang's deciding goal in the fourth round.
Martin Havlat and Patrick Sharp each failed on their chance to end the shootout, but Lang came through with a snapper past goalie Jose Theodore.
"It's always nice to be put in that position," Lang said. "I've been there when I didn't score, but today the shot went in, game over."
That's 3 straight wins for the Hawks -- 2 in shootouts -- all with Patrick Lalime in goal.
Lalime made 22 saves in regulation, then stopped 3 of 4 in the shootout.
"Patty gave us a chance to win," said Hawks coach Denis Savard, who plans to give Lalime a fourth straight start tonight in Phoenix. "In the first period we weren't as good as we should have been and they had some chances.
"It's a big difference in this league when you have goaltending like we had tonight. That's why we won."
The Avs outshot the Hawks 13-6 in the first period, then had only 10 shots the rest of the way.
"I think our character kicked in after the first," Savard said. "I walked in the room and wasn't too happy with the way we were playing and they responded."
Patrick Kane scored for the Hawks in regulation, then led off the shootout with a goal that resulted from a dazzling series of dekes, finishing backhand to forehand.
"Pretty scary move, huh?" Savard said.
Kane said he was going to try a backhander, then he remembered that Theodore catches with his right hand.
"I went down and I remembered my buddy, Sam Gagner (of the Edmonton Oilers) does that move with a goalie with a glove hand to that side," Kane said. "As I was going down I thought I might try it. He went sprawling across on my move to the backhand and I had an open net."
Kane scored 2:32 into the first period, his third goal in two games after he went 28 games while scoring just twice. Kane beat Theodore on a breakaway, sprung free by a perfect pass from Havlat.
"Havvy made a great pass on that first one," Kane said. "Hopefully I can keep on a roll here. I know it's only two games."
Colorado tied it less than six minutes later on Andrew Brunette's power-play goal. Brunette flipped home a rebound after Lalime let the puck get too far out of his reach.
Lalime improved his personal record to 7-5-1.
"This was a nice road game for us," Lalime said. "We waited for our chances and had some big guys step up."
The Hawks were able to overcome going 0-for-5 on the power play.