Hawks rally behind Toews’ talk
ST. LOUIS — Maybe there’s no Joel Quenneville behind the bench, but at least the Blackhawks still have Jonathan Toews in the dressing room.
It was another tell-it-like-it-is speech from the captain following a sloppy first period Monday afternoon that helped right the ship and propel the Hawks to a 5-3 victory over the Blues at Scottrade Center.
A two-game winning streak still finds the Hawks 11th in the Western Conference, but they are one of five teams now with 68 points after the top six.
It wasn’t a first period to remember for the Hawks, who fell behind 2-0 on late goals by Andy McDonald (on a power play) and Brad Boyes, but 4 straight goals followed Toews’ talk.
“Johnny’s done that all year,” said rookie goalie Corey Crawford, who registered his 20th victory of the season. “He knows what to say at the right time. He told us just to relax and play our game, that we know what we can do.
“The first period was gone and there’s nothing we can do about it. We just had to go out there and play the way we could.”
Hawks acting head coach Mike Haviland didn’t hear a lot of what Toews said but saw the results.
“I didn’t hear much of it; I just kind of came through,” Haviland said. “We turned the puck over too much, he said, and that we had to pick it up.
“For sure he had a lot to say and a couple other guys I know. He doesn’t say a lot, but when he does it means an awful lot. The guys responded and it was great to see for us.”
The Hawks were outshot 15-9 in the opening period and put little sustained pressure on Blues rookie goalie Ben Bishop, but the second was a totally different story.
Viktor Stalberg’s backhander off a faceoff through Bishop at 2:18 got the Hawks on the board and might have been the biggest goal of the day.
“It’s a big goal from our depth in the lineup and I think the confidence came right back to us,” Haviland said. “Then we started playing simple and getting things on the net. It got us going for sure and settled us down.”
Dave Bolland tied it exactly a minute later off a feed from Marian Hossa after Bryan Bickell forced a Barret Jackman turnover in the neutral zone.
With Bishop looking shaky, the Hawks kept pressing and took the lead at 6:29 on Patrick Kane’s wrist shot off a feed from Toews through two Blues defenders in front. It was Kane’s 20th goal of the season.
Not much later Toews got his 20th on a power play to make it 4-2 and send Bishop to the bench for Ty Conklin.
“It just wasn’t good enough of a start,” Toews said. “We know this team likes to start fast in their own building and we didn’t answer the call. A couple things were said, but not much had to be said. We knew what we had to be better at.
“We tested that goaltender and got some bounces there in the second period and it turned out that’s all we needed.”
The Blues got within 4-3 on Alex Pietrangelo’s goal at 8:48 of the third period that came just moments after an apparent St. Louis goal was disallowed because B.J. Crombeen was in the crease.
Crawford had complained earlier to the referees that the Blues were crowding him and got the favorable call.
“They were kind of doing that all night,” Crawford said. “They weren’t giving me a chance to get out and challenge so I just let the refs know that was their plan to do that.”