Perfect story line on this night

Now this was fitting.

On a night when goaltending great Tony Esposito was honored, the Blackhawks made it easy for their goalie, Nikolai Khabibulin, Wednesday at the United Center.

The Hawks exploded for 4 goals in the first period and routed the Washington Capitals 5-0 in front of their eighth sellout crowd of the season.

In his first start since Feb. 20 because of back spasms, Khabibulin made 25 saves to post his second shutout of the year.

Only 2 of those shots came off the stick of NHL leading scorer Alexander Ovechkin, who came to town with 58 goals and left with the same number.

"The guys in front of me did a really good job when Ovechkin was on the ice," Khabibulin said. "Obviously, he's a force out there and pretty much has 5, 6 or 7 shots a game."

Hawks coach Denis Savard used defensemen Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith against Ovechkin with impressive results.

"I don't really know what we did to frustrate him," Seabrook said. "We played him hard and didn't give him much room to shoot."

Savard also put the line of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien out on the ice as much as possible against Ovechkin.

"We emphasized how good he is, but at the same time we know we're capable of shutting teams down; we've done that before," Savard said. "Credit goes to Seabrook and Duncan. I had the kids playing against him most of the night, but our defense did a good job with him."

Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig was under siege in the first period when the Hawks outshot the Caps 18-6 and got goals from Jason Williams, Toews, Yanic Perreault and Patrick Sharp.

"Our guys came out to play and really wanted it," Savard said. "Our first period was one of our best periods this year."

"When we come out with a start like that we rarely lose," Kane said.

It was a big night for Toews and Kane in their head-to-head-to-head meeting with fellow rookie Nicklas Backstrom of the Caps.

Toews' goal was his 21st while Kane's assist on the play gave him a 2-point lead on Backstrom for the rookie scoring lead, 63-61.

Khabibulin made 11 of his saves in the third period, including one for the highlight shows -- a diving glove stop on Alexander Semin with 2:53 to play that brought the fans out of their seats and had them chanting for Khabibulin like they used to do for Esposito.

"I think you're going to see that one on ESPN a few times tonight," Williams said.

The win moved the Hawks back to within 7 points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference but with only eight games to play and five teams to pass.

"We want to make sure we finish the season hard and prove to the organization that we're going to fight to the end," Williams said.

The Capitals, who won a tough game in Nashville on Tuesday night, saw a four-game winning streak end.

"We were lethargic," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We didn't have any jump from Ovechkin to (enforcer) Donald Brashear. There was something missing, and the Hawks played real good."