No playoffs, but Hawks' home finale still special

It wasn't easy for the Blackhawks to lace up the skates and play the Nashville Predators on Friday night, not after being eliminated from the playoffs less than 24 hours earlier.

But the show must go on, and the Hawks have been quite a show this season.

And if any additional motivation was required, the Hawks found more than 20,000 reasons to go out battling with another packed house watching their final home game at the United Center.

"It was a tough game (to play), let's face it, but we owed it to our fans and we owed it to each other to finish strong," Hawks coach Denis Savard said.

The Hawks got a thunderous thank you ovation as they took the ice before the game from the 21,929 on hand -- the largest crowd of the season -- and another one as the final seconds ticked down in their 3-1 victory over the Predators.

"In that last minute, how the fans reacted was spectacular," Savard said.

"It's disappointing not to still be alive in this playoff race, but we talked as a team and said let's go out and play for our fans that have been awesome to us all year," said Adam Burish, who scored in the first period along with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. "We said we started something pretty special here, so let's give it to our fans this last game here at home to finish it the right way."

Toews got his 24th goal and Kane his 20th to go with an assist to bring his season total to 71 points. The Hawks haven't had two rookies score 20 or more goals in he same season since Darryl Sutter and Savard in 1980-81.

"I remember in St. Louis, I had the empty net there and hit the post and all the guys were bugging me that it was going to haunt me and that I was only going to get 19," Kane said.

Goalie Patrick Lalime was sharp with 29 saves to earn the win that put the Hawks 7 games over .500 at 40-33-8 (88 points). A win in Sunday's season finale at Detroit would give them 90 points for only the third time in the last 16 seasons.

"We're still short, let's get this straight," Savard said. "We want to be a playoff team and a Stanley Cup champion here, but we've made some huge steps."

Even with missing the playoffs for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons, the Hawks took a huge step forward in simply becoming relevant again. The sellout Friday was their 12th of the season, putting attendance up well over 46 percent, and they are on television and in the newspapers again -- and significant in the NHL once more.

"We wanted to win now and make the playoff now, but I think guys are proud of what we started here, from the players to upstairs in management," Burish said. "What's been going on here the last six months is pretty special. We can be proud of where we've come from."

But the sting of coming so close to making the playoffs will still be there for a while.

"I guess it's kind of a bittersweet feeling," said Toews, who along with Kane helped jumpstart the dramatic turnaround. "There's been a lot of talk about our future and what we're capable of doing, and I think everyone in this locker room knows that, but right now we're disappointed with our situation. You can't help but look back at games that could have made the difference with us making the playoffs."

The eight-game losing streak from Dec. 30 through Jan. 11 hurt dearly. The Hawks went 5-11 without Toews, who sprained his knee on Jan. 1 in Los Angeles.

"It was huge -- no question we missed him -- but we have no excuses," Savard said.