Fraser helps Blackhawks win record 50th

DALLAS - The playoffs start next week, and Colin Fraser doesn't want to be a spectator like last spring.

Fraser appeared in only two of the Hawks' 17 playoff games on their run to the Western Conference finals a year ago but is making it difficult for coach Joel Quenneville to take him out of the lineup.

Fraser had 2 goals Tuesday night in the Hawks' 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center and now has points in three of his last five games.

"I played 81 games last year and then obviously we all got healthy heading into the playoffs," Fraser said. "Everybody wants to play and everybody wants to contribute, but that's the price you pay on such a deep team.

"I'm just going to play as well as I can here down the stretch and hopefully it's enough to keep me in."

The win was the 50th of the season for the Hawks, establishing a franchise record. Their 107 points ties a team mark.

The Hawks have won four in a row and can capture the Western Conference by winning their last three games no matter what San Jose does. The Sharks, who still lead the Hawks by 2 points, have only two games remaining after defeating Calgary 2-1 on Tuesday night.

"I know we've had our ups and downs this season, but it's been a great year from the start," said Patrick Kane, who scored his 30th goal in the win. "It's a good time to be taking off right now, getting on a little winning streak especially after that little slump we had.

"It's exciting; 50 wins is something not many teams can do."

Stars coach Marc Crawford gave goalie Matt Climie his first start of the season, and the Hawks capitalized just 36 seconds after the opening faceoff when Marian Hossa tapped a pass from Jonathan Toews out of the air and into the net.

It was the Hawks' plan to try to get to Climie early.

"I'm sure he was a little nervous," Kane said. "You get a puck at him right away in the first 30 seconds and get a goal like that, it's nice to have that start. We tried to put pucks on him, but overall every line stepped up."

The fourth line of Fraser, Ben Eager and Tomas Kopecky was strong again. And Adam Burish returned after three games as a scratch and had 2 assists filling in for Troy Brouwer alongside Kane and Dave Bolland.

Brouwer missed the game for personal reasons.

Quenneville is going to have a tough decision to make for the start of the playoffs for playing time on the fourth line between Fraser, Eager, Kopecky and Burish.

"That line every night lately has been effective and productive," Quenneville said. "It's nice if we do have tough decisions. We welcome that."

Antti Niemi made 26 saves with the only goals he allowed coming on deflections.

The Hawks have a game in hand on the Sharks and it comes Wednesday night against St. Louis at the United Center.

"Still the motivation and the objective is to finish first," Quenneville said. "We've got a little momentum here going into the last three games and we'd like to sustain that going into the playoffs because we know that everything is going to ratchet up a notch or two and we have to be ready for that pace."