DALLAS _ The answer came so quickly, it was almost as if Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton had been expecting the question.
What do the Hawks need to do to begin winning road games?
"Better start," Colliton said before Thursday's game against the Stars. "It's hard to come from behind when you're on the road. Let's be sharp early on. Let's be sure that we're making them work for everything they get offensively. That can set up the rest of the game for us."
Colliton nailed it. Barely.
The Hawks got off to a terrific start as Alex DeBrincat scored 1 minute, 12 seconds into the game, and Erik Gustafsson added a first-period power-play goal that carried them to a 5-2 win over the Stars at American Airlines Center.
Cam Ward, making his second straight start in place of the injured Corey Crawford, stopped 26 shots to give the Hawks their first two-game winning streak since Oct. 23 and 25.
The Hawks came into the game with a 4-12-2 road record that, unbelievably, was even worse than it seemed. They had won only one road game in regulation all season _ a 4-1 win over the Blue Jackets in which they were outshot 38-26 _ and were 1-13 in their last 14 away from the United Center.
The Hawks have been the victim of so many fast starts over the last month, it was a bit shocking to see DeBrincat score barely a minute into the game on a terrific set play.
With a faceoff to the left of Stars goalie Ben Bishop, David Kampf won the draw. Dylan Sikura stepped in and tipped the puck back to DeBrincat, who didn't waste any time in sending a wrist shot over Bishop's left shoulder for his 15th goal.
After Alexander Radulov was sent off for slashing, Gustafsson scored his eighth goal _ and seventh in his last 13 games _ when he one-timed a Patrick Kane pass past Bishop to make it 2-0 with 2:37 left in the first.
It was the second power-play goal in two games for Gustafsson and the first time since Oct. 28 and 31 that the Hawks scored power-play goals in consecutive games.
Patrick Kane's backhander put the Hawks up 3-0 just under two minutes into the second period. Tyler Seguin got the Stars on the board with his 11th goal at the 11:45 mark of the second.
The Stars pulled within a goal with 13:44 left in the third when Jamie Benn poked the puck out from under Ward's glove to Taylor Fedun, who put it into an open net to make it 3-2.
Kane and Brendan Perlini added empty-netters to seal the victory.
Connor Murphy left the game with 2:52 remaining after taking an elbow to the face from Tyler Pitlick that left him bleeding heavily. No penalty was called on the play.
Collin Delia sat for the second straight game since getting called up from Rockford after Crawford suffered a concussion. It wasn't a shocking decision after Ward stopped 30 shots in Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Predators.
"We believe in (Delia)," Colliton said. "I think he's going to do a great job when he gets the chance."
That chance is likely to come when the Hawks visit the Avalanche on Friday night in Denver. But the way Ward has been playing, nobody could blame Colliton for sending him out one more time.
