Jan. 15--With Artem Anisimov back from illness and Erik Gustaffson out because of a lower-body injury, the Blackhawks lead the Canadiens 2-1 at the Bell Center.
The first period was and up-and-down period that featured plenty of chances for both teams.
The Hawks got on the board first when Jonathan Toews scored his 17th goal of the season.
Andrew Shaw did most of the legwork on the goal. Following a faceoff, Shaw won control of the puck along the boards and got it through traffic in the left circle and in front of the net. He shuffled a pass over to Toews on the opposite side of goaltender Mike Condon and Toews finished the sequence for a 1-0 Hawks lead at 8 minutes, 26 seconds.
The Canadiens would it tie at 10:36 when Corey Crawford could not corral a bouncing puck.
The Canadiens' Paul Byron was in position to clean up the rebound and the puck deflected off Byron and in. But the Hawks would answer on Ryan Garbutt's second goal of the season.
The fourth line of Garbutt, Richard Panik and Dennis Rasmussen spent a shift peppering Condon with shots before Garbutt's laser from the left circle went in for a 2-1 Hawks lead at 12:56.
