Toews leads Hawks past Blue Jackets

There's no way the Blackhawks miss the playoffs if Jonathan Toews has anything to say about it.

Toews is the kind of player who can will a team to succeed, and he helped get the Hawks started in the right direction coming out of the all-star break Tuesday night.

Toews had a critical short-handed goal and 2 assists as the Hawks overcame a sluggish start to defeat the Blue Jackets 7-4 at Nationwide Arena.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and put the Hawks in a good place heading into the meat of their six-game road trip.

“We've got some tough games,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters after the game. “You're going into Vancouver (Friday), which is as tough a building as there is in the league.

“It doesn't get easier. We've got five quality opponents and at the end of the day we need to pick up points on the road. We've got to be a great road team the rest of the way to put ourselves in the spot we want to be in.”

The Hawks had a 2-1 lead in the second period on goals by Nick Leddy and Duncan Keith, but Columbus scored 2 quick ones, prompting an angry Quenneville to call a timeout.

“We gave up 2 quick goals there and lost all the momentum in the game,” Quenneville said. “In our last two games we basically lost the game in the second period against Philadelphia and Minnesota. I thought we regrouped well and Johnny scored a huge goal.”

Toews scored in alone on goalie Steve Mason after getting past two defensemen.

“The defenseman tried to tie up my stick,” Toews said. “I just kicked it up and the other guy kind of got sucked in. Next thing you know I was around him.”

But before Toews got a big short-handed goal with 40 seconds to play in the second period, Viktor Stalberg and Patrick Kane scored to put the Hawks back in front.

Toews made a nice play behind the net to set up Kane's goal at 12:36 that made it 4-3.

Marty Turco played well, making some important saves among his 29 despite allowing 4 goals. “He was good,” Quenneville said. “He battled and kept us in there.”

A total of 14 different Hawks had points in the victory with Fernando Pisani and Brent Seabrook each getting 2 assists.

The Hawks did get sloppy at times defensively, which got Quenneville's attention.

“We gave up a little more quality than we liked,” Quenneville said. “We've got to be sharper with the puck, particularly throwing the puck carelessly in the middle of the ice.”

Neither coach was happy with the style points.

“That was an ugly game, and I'm sure Joel would say the same on his side,” Columbus coach Scott Arniel said. “Pretty sloppy game coming out of the all-star break.”

Dave Bolland and Marian Hossa also scored for the Hawks. Hossa got a short-handed, empty-net goal late to seal the win.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

Blackhawks 7, Blue Jackets 4

<B>Three stars:</B>

1. Jonathan Toews, Hawks: A short-handed goal and 2 assists for the captain.

2. Fernando Pisani, Hawks: Two assists and was part of a 5-for-5 penalty-killing unit.

3. Marty Turco, Hawks: Allowed 4 goals but made some big stops when the game was tight.

<B>Not bad, for openers: </B>The win was what counted, but the Hawks came out of the all-star break making many of the same defensive mistakes that have plagued them much of the year. With the Feb. 28 trade deadline less than four weeks away, general manager Stan Bowman figures to only step up his search for a dependable fifth defenseman.