Crawford makes career-high 48 saves as Hawks keep playoff hopes alive
Moments after allowing 4 goals in a win over Buffalo at the United Center on March 7, Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford strolled into the dressing room and fielded a few questions after a somewhat uneven performance.
It was his third appearance after missing more than two months with a concussion, and none of them had gone particularly well.
So while he remained upbeat and positive after the 5-4 shootout victory over the Sabres, I still felt compelled to ask if — after two long layoffs — he was feeling rusty and hadn't yet caught up to the speed of the game.
“I don't know,” Crawford said. “I'm just trying to play my game and be square and just try and read the play, but not react before a play happens. Like you said, the game's fast, but I'm trying to put myself in position to make a play on everything.
“It is what it is right now and I'm just trying to battle.”
Well, don't look now but Crawford is winning that battle and leading the Hawks right back into the thick of the playoff picture.
Crawford's latest standout performance came in a 2-0 victory at Montreal on Saturday in which he made a career-high 48 saves, many of which would have easily evaded a run-of-the-mill goalie.
“Some of those saves seemed impossible,” defenseman Connor Murphy told reporters. “That's why we're happy to have him.”
Murphy and Brendan Perlini scored for the Hawks, who have won five straight and jumped over Colorado into 10th place in the Western Conference. The Hawks (32-30-9) are 3 points behind ninth-place Minnesota and 5 behind Arizona, which sits in the second wild-card spot.
About a dozen of Crawford's saves left announcers gasping for air, but the most impressive came with 8:02 remaining in the second period when he flat-out robbed Artturi Lehkonen with his glove. The shellshocked Lehkonen appeared to say, “My God” as he watched for a replay to appear on the scoreboard.
“I mean I gave a bad rebound,” said Crawford, referring to Victor Mete's shot that squirted right to Lehkonen. “It was more I was covering short side and once I read he was going far (side), I just threw my glove and pad up there, and it went right in my glove.”
Crawford put his name in the record books, joining Dave Dryden as the only Hawks goalies to post 48-save shutouts. It's also only the 18th time in NHL history a shutout has been recorded when a goalie faces 48 or more shots since the stat became official in 1955-56.
Crawford got some help, too, as the Hawks blocked 24 shots (4 each by Murphy and Slater Koekkoek) and went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
“That's a big win from us against a team that's close to being in the playoffs,” said Crawford, who has a .975 save percentage and 0.82 goals-against average in his last four starts. “They need points too. And we just pick up our game.”
Murphy gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 3:34 of the second period when he took advantage of some open ice in the offensive zone and zipped a shot past Carey Price off a feed from Dylan Strome.
The Hawks clung to that lead for more than 20 minutes, then extended it to 2-0 on Perlini's eighth goal in seven games. Perlini found a quiet spot about 25 feet in front of Price and one-timed an Alex DeBrincat pass into the net.
The Hawks return home to host Vancouver on Monday and Philadelphia on Thursday, then have back-to-backs against Colorado on Saturday and Sunday.