MONTREAL _ Playoffs or no playoffs, the Blackhawks already have accomplished something vital for any team but especially a relatively young one: They are playing important games deep into the season.
Coach Jeremy Colliton leaned heavily on his best players in January and February, building a couple of "loaded up" lines with the hope the Hawks could score their way back into playoff contention.
"You look at your team and you think, 'How are we going to win?' " Colliton said before Saturday night's game against the Canadiens at the Bell Centre. "That's sort of what you got to do. You look at the personnel you have and what's the way forward, and of course you got to have to have the long term in mind. But we wanted to get back in the race.
"We've been able to do that and now we get to have some fun playing big games."
Corey Crawford has won a lot of big games in his career, and the Montreal native was brilliant Saturday, stopping a career-high 48 shots to lead the Hawks to a 2-0 victory, their fifth straight. Crawford earned his 25th career shutout and is 5-0 in his last five starts in his hometown.
The Hawks pulled within four points of the Coyotes for the final Western Conference playoff spot, pending the outcome of their game Saturday night against the Oilers.
Several young Hawks never have played in the NHL playoffs, including Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome. If the Hawks do get in, those two will be a major reason.
"The biggest thing about what those guys are showing right now is the potential for growth," Colliton said. "You know they're going to get better and better, and they want to be top players on their team but in the league as well, and they'll only make our team better as we go along.
"If we get that opportunity to play in the playoffs, those guys are looking to step up. We need that depth, we need those guys to be big for us."
Strome helped the Hawks to a 1-0 lead with 16 minutes, 56 seconds left in the second when he sent a pass to Connor Murphy in the slot. The defenseman buried a shot past Carey Price for his fourth goal of the season.
The Hawks took a 2-0 lead early in the third when the red-hot Brendan Perlini took a pass from DeBrincat for his eighth goal in the last seven games.
Rookie Dylan Sikura, still in search of his first NHL goal, has been thriving on a line with Brandon Saad and Jonathan Toews. Shortly after Murphy's goal, Sikura unleashed a wrist shot that got past Price but banged off the crossbar.
Early in the second, the Canadiens' Paul Byron skated past a twisting Erik Gustafsson to get a near-breakaway. His shot beat Crawford, but that, too, hit the crossbar.
The Canadiens are as desperate as the Hawks for points. They are just 6-10-1 over their last 17 games and two points out of the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot.
Both teams had a few good chances during a scoreless first period. The Canadiens had the only power play of the period and had four shots on goal. In the second, Crawford made several magnificent stops, including a sweeping glove save after he gave up a rebound chance to Artturi Lehkonen.
The Hawks best opportunity to score in the first came midway through the period when Sikura picked up a loose puck behind the Canadiens' net and, with Price looking the opposite direction, sent a pass to Saad with a wide open net in front of him.
Saad got off a snap shot but was a little too quick, and it went just wide right.
