Blackhawks beat Predators with 2nd-period flurry

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, always looking for the proper response from his players, got what he wanted to see from Cristobal Huet on Thursday night.

Huet, the struggling No. 1 goalie, didn't have a lot of work, but he came up with several big stops as the Hawks beat the host Nashville Predators 3-1 to run their winning streak to four games.

At 5-1-1, the Hawks are off to their best start since the 1982-83 season.

Huet faced only 13 shots, but he came up with a huge confidence-building save in the first minute by going post to post to rob Jason Arnott with a pad save.

"He made that big save early in the game that helped him and helped us," Quenneville told reporters.

Huet said it was difficult to stay sharp with so few shots.

"There were a lot of tricky plays around the net," Huet said. "For the most part I felt good. I think the guys played a very complete game.

"It was important to get the win. I try not to be too down or to be too high."

The Hawks outshot Nashville 30-13 and got goals from Dustin Byfuglien, Tomas Kopecky and Duncan Keith.

The Predators have the worst offense in the NHL (8 goals in six games) and they showed why by putting little pressure on Huet and the Hawks.

Nashville had just 2 shots in the third period.

"I liked the way we played," Quenneville said. "We got the road game we were looking for. I thought we checked pretty well in the third when we had the lead and did a lot of good things."

Following a scoreless first period in which the Hawks outshot the Predators 12-5, Byfuglien scored on a power play at 2:21 of the second.

Camped in his usual spot in front of goalie Pekka Rinne, Byfuglien banged home a rebound of a shot off the post by Brent Seabrook for his fourth goal of the year. Byfuglien didn't get his fourth goal last season until Dec. 12 in the Hawks' 24th game.

For the second straight night, the fourth line chipped in a goal with Kopecky scoring his first with the Hawks just 28 seconds after Byfuglien. Jack Skille forced a turnover to Colin Fraser, who fed Kopecky in front for the tap-in.

The only goal Huet allowed came at 3:36 of the second period when Martin Erat's centering pass went in off the skate of Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson.

Keith's goal early in the third period was set up by Seabrook and Jonathan Toews.

Seabrook made a nice play keeping the puck in the Nashville zone and Toews spotted Keith cutting down the slot for a hard slap shot over Rinne.

<p class=factboxtext12col>Blackhawks 3, Predators 1</p> <p class=factboxtext12col>Three stars</p> <p class=factboxtext12col>1. Brent Seabrook: Hawks defenseman played a big role in shutting Nashville down and had 2 assists and 2 blocked shots in 25-plus minutes.</p> <p class=factboxtext12col>2. Cristobal Huet: In a big bounceback game for the Hawks goalie, he faced only 13 shots but made several critical stops along the way.</p> <p class=factboxtext12col>3. Duncan Keith: Hawks defenseman played more than 27 minutes and chipped in a goal to go with 4 blocked shots.</p> <p class=factboxtext12col>Key stat</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=329352">Barker's bombs a key on power pla<span class="date"> [10/15/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>