Blackhawks place Crawford on injured reserve

The Chicago Blackhawks placed Corey Crawford on injured reserve on Friday, sidelining one of the NHL’s top goaltenders for at least a week.

It’s unclear when Crawford got hurt, and the Blackhawks provided no details about the injury. The team was off Friday before playing consecutive games this weekend against Dallas and Los Angeles.

Crawford, who turns 33 on Dec. 31, has started 20 of Chicago’s 25 games. He made 31 saves in Thursday night’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Stars.

The loss of Crawford for any length of time is a huge blow for Chicago (12-9-4), which was just starting to play a little better after a lacklustre start. He is 11-7-2 with a 2.29 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.

Anton Forsberg has been serving as Crawford’s backup, and Jean-Francois Berube was recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League.

Forsberg, who turned 25 on Monday, was acquired in the June trade with Columbus that brought Brandon Saad back to Chicago and shipped off high-scoring forward Artemi Panarin to the Blue Jackets. He is 1-2 with a 3.71 GAA in six games in his first season with the Blackhawks.

The 26-year-old Berube agreed to a two-year contract with Chicago over the summer. He made 21 appearances with the New York Islanders over the previous two seasons, going 6-4-3 with a 3.11 GAA.