Hawks get back to winning ways, get back at Predators

Since taking over as coach four games into the season, Joel Quenneville has seen the Blackhawks mostly at their best.

On Sunday night at the United Center, Quenneville got to watch how the Hawks handle a little adversity.

Led by goalie Nikolai Khabibulin's 26 saves, the Hawks gave Quenneville the response he was hoping for by beating the Nashville Predators 3-1 to snap a two-game losing streak.

"It was a good test. You lose four out of six and it gets your attention," Quenneville said. "I think we were asked that question: 'What's it like with no adversity?' And you're like, 'Don't worry, it's going to be here.'

"I just liked the approach in the locker room going into the game and taking care of the details as the game progressed."

Unlike their losses in Nashville on Saturday and at Colorado on Thursday, the Hawks got off to a quick start and took a 1-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game on Dustin Byfuglien's power-play goal.

"We didn't want to lose three in a row and we came out focused and ready to go," Byfuglien said.

"There was no panic," said Dave Bolland, whose goal at 5:58 of the second period snapped a 1-1 tie and proved to be the game-winner. "It was two losses and it's going to happen. You can't always win all of them, right? We just played a simple game. We didn't take too many chances and we were good defensively."

Bolland's goal came on an Andrew Ladd rebound moments after Nashville's Jordin Tootoo missed a partially open net on a rebound at the other end following a big save by Khabibulin.

"That was the turning point in the game," Quenneville said. "Tootoo had a great chance and then we go down and score on the same play. If it's 2-1 for them, then we're playing like we did last night, trying to chase the game a little bit."

Both goaltenders were sharp. Nashville's Dan Ellis made 30 saves and kept the Predators in it in the third period.

The Hawks have scored only 5 goals in the last three games and even their third goal Sunday by Martin Havlat was into an empty net after Ellis was pulled for a sixth attacker.

"I think the last three games we've seen quality goaltending," Quenneville said. "We haven't seen the goal scoring we've had for a big stretch of games."

Khabibulin's victory made him 13-3-4 and unbeaten in regulation at the United Center at 7-0-3.

Khabibulin has helped the Hawks earn at least 1 point in 17 of his last 19 decisions.

"The last couple games we didn't have the starts for whatever reason," Khabibulin said. "Whether it's mentally or physically, we were a little flat.

"Coming back home we really wanted to have a good start and use the fans to our advantage. I think we did pretty well that way. We wanted to redeem ourselves, especially on home ice."