Ugly win just fine with Hawks
RALEIGH, N. C. — So the Blackhawks allowed 19 shots on goal in the second period. So they spent the last 40minutes on their heels, unable to hold their own blue line or to reach the other one. So they relied heavily on goalie Corey Crawford to bail them out. So what? ‘‘ I really liked those two points,’’ smiling coach Joel Quenneville said after picking up his 750th career victory with a 3- 1 nail- biter against the Carolina Hurricanes. ‘‘ They were definitely necessary.’’
It wasn’t the prettiest victory of the season for the Hawks by a long shot. Crawford had to make 43 saves— many of them harrowing — for the Hawks to sneak out with a victory. But coming off a dreadful 4- 0 loss Saturday to the Dallas Stars and with 10 games left in the season and a Central Division title to chase, it was good enough.
‘‘ We’ll win ugly if we have to,’’ said center Jonathan Toews, who picked up his 500th career point by blocking a shot for an assist on an empty- net goal by Andrew Shaw in the final minute, Shaw’s second goal of the game. ‘‘ We’ll do what we have to to win those tight games. We know we could have played better. . . . But sometimes you need two points like that.’’
It looked like it would be a laugher early. Nine minutes into the game, the Hawks had only two shots on goal but led 2- 0. Shaw, left all alone in the slot, one- timed a centering pass from Marcus Kruger at 7: 48 before Patrick Sharp tipped in a nifty pass from Marian Hossa on a rush to make it 2- 0 just 79 seconds later.
But the Hurricanes tilted the ice in the other direction in the second period, outshooting the Hawks 19- 6 and getting a rebound goal by Victor Rask after Crawford stopped a breakaway by Eric Staal.
‘‘ What we did to them in the first, they did to us in the second,’’ Quenneville said.
The Hawks improved to 23- 0- 0 when leading after two periods, but it took a lot of saves by Crawford and a lot of desperate sweeps and blocks in the crease to accomplish it.
With the victory, the Hawks moved three points behind the Central- leading St. Louis Blues with a game in hand. The Hawks face the Blues twice in the final week of the season.
‘‘ We want to get home ice for the playoffs,’’ Crawford said. ‘‘ Our building is a fun place to play in the playoffs. We just have to take it game by game, but we’re definitely chasing for first.’’