Big return home for Byfuglien
ST. PAUL, Minn. - This is home for Dustin Byfuglien.
Born in Minneapolis and raised six hours north in Roseau, Byfuglien has played some of his best games here against the Wild - but probably none better than Sunday night.
Byfuglien had 2 goals and 2 assists in the Hawks' 4-1 victory that extended their winning streak to a franchise-record nine games.
"My old man lives here, so I went home last night and we had a little Christmas dinner, so it was nice," Byfuglien said. "I spent a lot of time here growing up, every other weekend playing hockey down here or doing something."
Byfuglien opened the scoring at 7:14 of the first period off a scramble then made it 2-0 at 9:38 on a power play when he tipped home a shot by Duncan Keith.
"We just got pucks to the net," Byfuglien said. "I was around the net and they found a way in."
Byfuglien assisted on Martin Havlat's goal in the second period that made it 3-0 and later got a helper on Kris Versteeg's empty-netter in the final minute.
"He had a special game," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "He had the shot and was thinking shot. He hit the post, too. He was a threat and was dangerous all night."
More of the same: Another Hawks win meant another solid effort from the goaltender.
It was Cristobal Huet's turn Sunday, and he played well, making 18 saves, including a few big ones in the third period, to run his personal winning streak to five games.
Huet is 9-5-3, while Nikolai Khabibulin is 11-1-4.
"Goaltending has been a key," Joel Quenneville said. "I think that's been the one very consistent part of our game, and we feed off that. We get confidence at all times in games."
Ready for anything: While these are great times for the Hawks, sooner or later some adversity is going to creep into their season. But from what he has seen, coach Joel Quenneville is confident his team will handle it well.
"We know it's going to happen, but we'll deal with what we have to deal with on a regular basis," Quenneville said. "In games, we do have some things that don't go our way and we seem to get back on track quickly.
"I just think that everybody during the course of the year has some ups and downs and right now we want to make sure we keep finding ways to do the right things."
Tip-ins: The Hawks may face Detroit on Tuesday and Thursday with the Red Wings missing Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who was having his left ankle re-examined Sunday ... Defensemen Brent Sopel and Aaron Johnson were the scratches Sunday.