Defensive Blackhawks get back to winning

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has said all season the main thing was to be getting better as a team every day.

So have the Hawks been getting better?

"Not right now, no," Quenneville said at Wednesday's morning skate. "The last two games we can't say that."

A few hours later the Hawks went out and took a step toward changing Quenneville's mind, snapping that two-game losing streak with a defensive-minded 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at the United Center that left them 1 point from clinching their first playoff spot since 2002.

"It's been a long ride this year, tough, especially as of late," captain Jonathan Toews said. "I think all this stuff we've been through as a team is making us better.

"St. Louis is a team that has checked hard all year, and I think we went out and took it to them tonight. I think the fact we dictated most of the game shows our character."

The win gave the Hawks 93 points and moved them back into sole possession of fourth place in the Western Conference by 1 over Calgary.

The Hawks held St. Louis to 17 shots on goal (7 combined in the first two periods) in snapping the Blues' five-game winning streak.

Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin lost his shutout with two seconds to play when the Blues' Jeff Woywitka scored on a power play.

"If we can limit teams to that amount of shots we'll have a good chance to win here," Toews said.

Quenneville was pleased to see a total team commitment to defense after a rough few games.

"Defense wins in our league, and making that commitment is important," the coach said. "I thought all the lines were aware of their positions and did some good things and we managed the puck well, be it from the defense up to the forwards, or in the offensive zone.

"We sustained a lot of offensive zone time by just protecting it and supporting it."

The captain led the way early with Toews scoring another highlight-reel goal at 11:45 to make it 1-0.

Toews picked up the puck in the right circle and wove his way past Andy McDonald and Barret Jackman to beat goalie Chris Mason for his 31st goal.

It became 2-0 four minutes later when Sammy Pahlsson scored his first goal with the Hawks in front on a feed from Andrew Ladd.

Colin Fraser scored a huge short-handed goal with 4:31 to play with the Blues pressing to get back in the game.

"We just want to keep this rolling now and get home ice and be playing our best hockey," Fraser said.

The Blues started the night ninth in the West and could have moved up to seventh with a victory. But they looked sluggish and had only 6 shots at the 15-minute mark in the second period.

Their seventh shot was on a breakaway by Keith Tkachuk that Khabibulin turned away.

"He's a big-time goalie and a winner, and he made a great save," Tkachuk said.

"Give the Hawks credit. They deserved to win," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We didn't have the puck enough because they forechecked really well.

"We've had close games with Chicago all year, but they simply outplayed us tonight."

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