Hartman shines in Hawks' 3-2 win over Stars
With Andrew Desjardins set to make his season debut at the United Center tonight, one of the Blackhawks' bottom six forwards is going to have to take a seat.
Well, after a dazzling performance in a 3-2 Hawks victory in Dallas on Saturday, it's safe say that Ryan Hartman will not be that player.
Not only did Hartman score the game-tying goal 2:59 into the second period on a wicked blast from about 40 feet out, he also unleashed 3 big hits and was part of a third line that was dangerous all night.
“Thought he had an outstanding game tonight,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. “Got into it early, was physical, presence was noticeable.
“Obviously scoring a goal certainly helps, but I thought he was engaged and that line was effective too.”
The Hawks' other goals came from Richard Panik (just 11 seconds into the game) and Patrick Kane (at 7:40 of the second). Panik's goal (his seventh) was nearly the fastest to start a game in team history, but it fell three seconds short of Brent Sutter's on Feb. 5, 1995 in Vancouver.
Corey Crawford made 31 saves and is now 5-0-1 in his last six starts.
Crawford had to stave off a furious surge by the Dallas power-play unit in the game's final 1:49 after Marcus Kruger was whistled for a double-minor penalty for high sticking Jamie Benn. Crawford's 2 biggest saves came on a blast by Tyler Seguin with 60 seconds left and on a rebound attempt by Devin Shore with 35 seconds on the clock.
“That was a big kill at the end and some big kills throughout the game as well,” Quenneville said.
The Hawks (8-3-1) now have a 3-point lead over St. Louis (6-4-2) in the Central Division.
Artem Anisimov extended his career-best point streak to 10 games by making a beautiful pass to Kane despite being surrounded by Stars defenders. Anisimov and Kane both have 15 points and are tied with Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov for the lead league.
This was an extremely physical game from the outset, and Dallas was credited with 30 hits. The Blackhawks had just 5.
The Hawks have won five straight but don't feel like they're playing even close to their best hockey.
“For sure. I think that's a good sign,” said Jonathan Toews, who assisted on Panik's goal. “I don't think anyone realizes that we're on a little streak like that.”
“So we're just focusing on trying to improve every single day, knowing that every game — whether we win or not — we can look to the things that we want to improve on. … Right now we're doing a pretty good job of doing that and finding ways to win games, so it's nice to see.”
Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars, 6 p.m. Sunday at United Center
TV: Comcast SportsNet; Radio: WGN 720-AM
The skinny: Andrew Desjardins should make his season debut for the Blackhawks in this game. The veteran forward has been out nursing a foot injury suffered in the preseason. To make room for Desjardins, the Hawks placed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk on injured reserve. Van Riemsdyk (upper body) is expected to miss about 3-4 more weeks. … The Hawks went 1-4 against Dallas last season and were outscored 19-6 in the losses. … Going into Saturday's games, the Hawks had 11th-best power play (22.7 percent). Columbus (44.0 percent) leads the league with Nashville in second at 30 percent.
Next: St. Louis at Scottrade Center, 7 p.m. Wednesday
— John Dietz