CHICAGO _ The Blackhawks defeated the Kings 3-0 on Sunday night at the United Center behind 32 saves from Corey Crawford, who earned his first shutout of the season.
The Hawks got on the board early thanks to captain Jonathan Toews, who scored his first goal of the season. Toews fired home a wrist shot from the right wing that flew past Kings goaltender Peter Budaj thanks to a screen from Richard Panik.
The first period represented the Hawks' best start in their last five games. In the Hawks' four games before Sunday, opponents outscored them 4-1. It helped that the Kings are a banged-up team right now and are missing key players like goaltender Jonathan Quick and winger Marian Gaborik. Plus, the Kings were playing the second night of a back-to-back. In other words, the Hawks had little excuse not to jump on the Kings early.
But the Hawks kept the pressure on the Kings in the second period. Artem Anisimov continued his productive scoring with his sixth goal of the season. Marian Hossa set up the goal with a nimble play as he weaved around defenders and delivered a perfect pass to Anisimov on the doorstep. After flubbing his first attempt at the shot, Anisimov put in the goal at 13:30.
The Hawks killed off their only two penalties of the night, marking the first time they have gone an entire game without allowing a power-play goal.
Marian Hossa added an empty netter to round out the scoring.
