Crawford, Blackhawks blank Flyers

CHICAGO — Corey Crawford made 35 saves in his first shutout of the season, and the Chicago Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide with a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews scored 20 seconds apart in the second and Crawford took over from there, helping Chicago kill off three Philadelphia power plays in the last half of the game. Rookie Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal with 1:49 left in Crawford’s 22nd career shutout.

Brian Elliott made 32 stops for Philadelphia, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to lowly Arizona on Monday. The Flyers have dropped four of five heading into Thursday night’s game at Central Division-leading St. Louis.

Chicago had dropped five of six, prompting coach Joel Quenneville to juggle his lines and defensive pairings in search of a spark. Quenneville also had his team do sprints at the end of practice on Tuesday after he grew frustrated with the effort by the players.

The Blackhawks responded with a workmanlike effort while improving to 4-2-1 at home.

Anisimov’s fourth goal of the season was the Blackhawks’ first successful power play since Richard Panik scored at Arizona on Oct. 21. Evgeni Malkin’s tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period lifted Pittsburgh a victory over Edmonton in Edmonton, Alberta. Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored for the Penguins. Ryan NugentHopkins and Leon Draisaitl had goals for the Oilers.