Byfuglien caps Blackhawks comeback

DENVER - This was the type of game the Blackhawks have been waiting for from Dustin Byfuglien.

With only 3 goals in 23 games entering the Pepsi Center on Friday night, Byfuglien nearly doubled that output by scoring twice in the Hawks' gritty 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Colorado Avalanche.

Trailing 3-2, the Hawks got a goal from birthday boy Andrew Ladd with 10:01 to play, then Byfuglien notched the eventual winner with 6:09 left.

Byfuglien crashed the net to redirect a pass from Martin Havlat past goalie Peter Budaj.

"Huge goal, huge win," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

"They weren't pretty goals, just hardworking goals," Byfuglien said. "I thought this was a good team effort."

It was for the Hawks after a sloppy first period that saw them come out of down 2-1. The Hawks dominated the second period and much of the third to win their third in a row and go 4-0-1 in the last five.

"They took it to us in the first period and we were fortunate we were only down 1," Quenneville said. "Then we started going."

Byfuglien's first goal came at 7:30 of the second period and tied it at 2-2. A great pass from his own end by Jonathan Toews sprung Byfuglien, who beat Budaj in alone.

After Wojtek Wolski put the Avs back ahead 3-2 at 3:43 of the third period, Ladd took a pass from Dave Bolland and slid it through Budaj's pads.

Ladd's big goal came after he missed all but 1:55 of the first period thanks to a stick across his nose that needed stitches.

"I didn't see much of the first period, but from what I heard it wasn't too good," joked Ladd, who turned 23 Friday.

Maybe the Hawks didn't have their "A" game, but this is a team finding ways to win on nights when it either scores a lot, scores little or comes out slow.

"These games are huge for a young team to learn how to win because come playoff time it's a tighter game," defenseman Matt Walker said. "These are huge wins for us."

With Brent Seabrook struggling from the get-go, Walker played a second straight strong game and was awarded with more than 22 minutes by Quenneville.

Seabrook, who was slow to cut off Wolski on his goal, played only 16 minutes with just eight seconds of power play time.

"They took it to us in the second half of the second period and in the third, but we still had the lead in our own building," said the Avs' Ian Laperriere. "It's painful to let 2 points go just like that."

Nikolai Khabibulin made his first start since the day before Thanksgiving when he tweaked his groin at San Jose, and he played well even though he saw only 9 shots after the first period.

"Our goaltending situation has been very good," Quenneville said of Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet. "Each and every night we've been getting strong goaltending, consistent goaltending. They're competing and they push and each other in the right fashion."

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