No-brainer? Predators get to Crawford in the 3rd, beat Hawks 6-2

Nine goals. In four periods.

Maybe the decision to play Corey Crawford in Game 2 of the Hawks' opening-round series against Nashville shouldn't have been such a "no-brainer" after all.

No doubt, the second-guessing already is running rampant across Hawks Nation after the Predators evened the series with a 6-2 victory where they peppered Crawford with 35 shots, 28 of which came in the first and third periods when Nashville scored five times.

So is it Scott Darling time when the series moves to the United Center for Game 3 on Sunday?

"We'll see," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We'll talk about it as we go along tonight and tomorrow and we'll go with who gives us our best chance."

At this point that person would seem to be Darling, 6-foot-6 Lemont native who stopped all 42 shots he faced in the Hawks' Game 1 victory. Crawford, meanwhile, has a wretched .823 save percentage and looks nothing like a battle-tested, Stanley Cup winning goalie.

Asked if he can bounce back, Crawford said, "definitely," but he also was not about to deny the fact that he has bothered by his play.

"Right now it's pretty frustrating," Crawford said. "You can ask any goalie in the world and I'll bet they answer the same thing. This game's over, though. It doesn't mean anything anymore."

The Hawks were playing a decent game and erased a pair of 1-goal deficits thanks to goals by Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane.

Craig Smith made it 3-2 with 5:06 left in the second period.

Then the wheels came off in a two-minute, 19-second stretch in the third period as Crawford turned into a revolving door, allowing goals by Filip Forsberg, Smith and Mike Santorelli.

"It was one of those nights where pucks were going in on him," said Quenneville, who realizes that his team was taking chances as the third period was winding down. "We could have pulled him, but that deep in the game, we left him in there."

As expected, Jonathan Toews stood up for his goalie.

"He's one of the top players and one of the most valuable players when we won the Cup a few years ago," Toews said, later adding: "In the goaltender's position everyone knows that if things go wrong for your team, it's always easy to blame that guy.

"But as a team we take responsibility for … the odd-man rushes. We know we've got to clean it up in front of him and make his job a little bit easier."

The news is hardly all good for Nashville. Coach Peter Laviolette's squad lost eight-time all-star Shea Weber to a lower-body injury in the second period and the defenseman did not return. If both he and second-line center Mike Fisher are out for Game 3 and beyond, it means Nashville's depth will be severely tested. The Predators provided no update on either player's status.

"I think we've done a good job of not letting things affect us during a game," said Nashville center Colin Wilson, who has 3 goals in the two games. "Losing your captain is a big loss. He's been one of our best players, but no matter what's been thrown at us we've kind of stayed even keel."

Now the series heads to Chicago, and while Quenneville said he's "excited" to play in front of the home fans, he also hopes his players use the end of Game 2 as motivation.

"We should be angry," he said, "and find some positives out of the game and know we need to be better across the board."

Said Crawford: "We have home ice now. We're still in really good shape."

That may be true, but whether it's the shape of a 6-2 goalie or a 6-6 goalie in net Sunday remains to be seen.

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