Nov. 10--Niklas Hjalmarsson took a pass from Marian Hossa, cruised into the slot and ripped a wrist shot into the Sharks' net to cap a three-goal, first-period outburst by the Blackhawks that had the United Center rocking and rolling Sunday.
At that moment, the Hawks were looking every bit of the Stanley Cup contender they believe they are. A short time later, the lead was down to one and sticks were beginning to be gripped tight. It was a familiar feeling for the Hawks, who haven't grasped many games by throat and gone for the kill.
This time they did as they put things away with two third-period goals en route to a 5-2 victory over the Sharks in front of a crowd of 21,489 that released a whole lot of tension in the process.
"You could see where the confidence, tight games, playing the right way (and) doing the right things is a work in progress right now," coach Joel Quenneville said afterward. "I think that there's probably a little hesitation on our part knowing that we lost some tough games that we traditionally win."
The roller-coaster play has been the Hawks' trademark this season, and their record reflects it at 8-6-1.
"It seems like things go well for a certain amount of time and all of a sudden they stop clicking," captain Jonathan Toews said. "The ultimate fact is we're not winning as many games as we want to right now. That's glaring. We just have to stay with it. We know we're really close to having things kind of snowball the right way for us."
Sunday's win was just the Hawks' fourth in the last 10 games and the points they've failed to earn in October and November could come back to haunt the down the stretch of the regular season. The Hawks have been in every game as in each defeat this season they have fallen by a single goal. That can be considered good and bad news as they don't get blown out, but prior to Sunday had failed to come up with the big goals when they needed them.
"We have to do what we have to do to win those games," Toews said. "If it's just playing that perfect complete game every night, then we have to do that. Until then, if we don't get the bounces we have to keep working for it. Eventually, mentally we'll feel that release where we don't have to try so hard and squeeze our stacks and feel like if we make one mistake it's going to end up in our net. We just have to hang in there and just try to get over this hurdle mentally."
The trick now is to ride the momentum of a win over a Western Conference rival which was playing the second of back-to-back games.
"We definitely have to build off it," goalie Corey Crawford said. "We played really well (Sunday night) and we just have to stick to our game, keep that speed going and stick to how we know how to play -- move the puck and keep our feet moving."
One-timer: Daniel Carcillo is skating and nearing a return from his knee injury suffered Oct. 25 against the Blues. The initial prognosis was that the veteran winger would miss four weeks. Quenneville said it's likely Carcillo would return during the Hawks' six-game trip that begins Nov. 20 in Calgary.
"I still think we'll leave it at that timeline we had him on," Quenneville said. "Get him out here a little more on his own skating, get him injected in practice and then contact. So, (we're) probably looking at that trip at some point."
ckuc@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ChrisKuc
