Hawks win eighth straight, but may lose Toews

It should have been a night of celebration for the Blackhawks after their 3-2 win over the Bruins on Thursday at TD Garden.

After all, the last time the Hawks won a regular-season game in Boston was in January 2010, but thanks to the play of youngsters like Klas Dahlbeck and Scott Darling, and the relentlessness of the fourth line, they were able to pick up their eighth straight win and the 13th in their last 15 games.

Despite the victory, a gray cloud hung over this one concerning the health of Hawks captain Jonathan Toews, who was face-planted into the end boards by defenseman Dennis Seidenberg midway through the second period.

The hit earned Seidenberg a boarding penalty and perhaps more than that by the time the league is finished reviewing the play.

"Dangerous," coach Joel Quenneville said of the hit. "Tight area, strong guy."

Toews, who has a history of concussions, played the next shift but didn't return after that.

"We hope it's not too serious," said Ben Smith, who had a goal and an assist Thursday. "He's our leader and our catalyst and we stand behind him."

The good news is that it indeed doesn't appear to be too serious.

"He seemed all right; we'll see how he is tomorrow," Quenneville said. "It looks like he's going to be all right."

Dahlbeck opened the scoring midway through the first period with his first NHL goal in just his third game, beating Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask glove-side.

Late in the first, Smith, who assisted on Dahlbeck's goal, picked up his second point of the night when he stuffed one past Rask. Marcus Kruger got his second assist of the game on Smith's third goal of the season.

Patrick Kane, after fanning on his initial shot, fired one into the top left corner of the net to make it 3-0 at 13:19 of the second. It was Kane's team-leading 13th goal.

But this one was far from over.

Reilly Smith scored with a minute-and-a-half to go in the second to cut the lead to 3-1.

Things got very interesting at 12:17 of the third when Torey Krug beat Darling and a scrum ensued, bringing the Garden to life.

But the Hawks and Darling (32 saves) held on down the stretch.

"We said were going to do it for Tazer, and that's what the guys did," said Darling, who improved to 5-1 this season. "We came out and played hard and got the win for him."

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