Hawks push winning streak to season-high 5 games
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Just when you think you’ve seen the best of Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks’ captain takes it to another level.
Toews was brilliant with linemates Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp on Monday night in a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild that gave the Hawks their first five-game winning streak of the season.
It’s no coincidence the Hawks’ have put together their first significant winning streak with Toews on a tear.
He had a goal and 2 assists in Monday’s win, giving him 6 goals and 17 assists in the last 14 games. He leads the NHL in scoring in games since Jan. 25.
“He’s been great over this stretch of games here, looking back a month or so,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “He’s been a force and been dominating in all aspects and areas of the game.”
Sharp added a goal and an assist while Kane had an assist.
“They’ve been very consistent,” Quenneville said of his top line. “They have the puck a lot and they have a lot of offensive zone time and quality scoring chances.
“They’ve been a big part of our offense, but I like the other lines, too. At least we’re sustaining the momentum of the game and they’ve been doing some good things offensively and defensively.”
Second-period goals by Sharp, Tomas Kopecky and Toews gave the Hawks a 3-0 lead going to the third, where it got a little hairy.
Martin Havlat’s goal 45 seconds into the third period made it 3-2, then the Hawks’ lead was cut to 1 when Brent Burns scored with 4:12 to play.
The Wild was on a late power play looking for the tie when Toews set up Marian Hossa’s killer short-handed goal with 1:52 remaining.
“It was nice cushion to get that fourth one,” Toews said.
“We got ourselves in a little trouble,” Hossa said. “We controlled the game pretty much all the way, but they scored the second goal and all of a sudden it was a game. Tazer made a great pass to me and I had half the net to put it in.”
The win vaulted the Hawks over Minnesota and Dallas into fifth place in the Western Conference. They were 11th when their five-game winning streak started with a Feb. 20 victory over Pittsburgh.
“We don’t even feel like we’re on a hot streak right now,” Toews said. “We’re taking it one game at a time and it doesn’t matter how we find a way to win.”
Not only did the Hawks score a short-handed goal, they killed all 3 Minnesota power plays led by goalie Corey Crawford.
Crawford made 24 saves for his 23rd win of the season.
“It’s tough when you spot a really good team a 3-0 lead,” Wild coach Todd Richards said. “There were different segments in the game where we didn’t execute the way we need to against a very, very good Chicago team — a team that you can see their playmaking ability, especially out of the Toews line, which I thought was very good tonight.”