Jan. 15--Corey Crawford returned to his hometown in triumphant fashion and helped the Blackhawks escape with a 2-1 victory over the Canadiens. Here are some notes from the win
1. Fourth line comes up with winning goal
Even though Ryan Garbutt scored at 12 minutes, 56 seconds in the first period, his goal proved to be the difference for the Hawks in their victory.
It was a good night overall for the fourth line of Garbutt, Dennis Rasmussen and newcomer Richard Panik. Each of the three clocked in more than 10 minutes of ice time when that line had usually been under 10 minutes a game for the last few games.
"Much better," coach Joel Quenneville said. "(They had) offensive zone time, big goal tonight, puck's moving forward. They've got some speed on the line. But they've been effective the last two games for sure."
Expect Panik to stay in lineup Friday when he faces his former team, the Maple Leafs.
2. Top line scores again
With Jonathan Toews' goal Thursday, the Hawks' top line has scored six goal in the last three games. This comes after the team struggled to score during the first 30-plus games of the season. But ever since Quenneville moved Andrew Shaw to the left wing alongside Toews and Marian Hossa, the line has been clicking on a more consistent basis.
"We always felt it was a great spot to play with Toews and Hossa and eventually someone's going to nail it," Quenneville said. "And Shawzy doesn't want to give it up, based on his contributions. That line has been dangerous."
3. Corsi look
For the 19th time this season, the Hawks lost the battle in overall Corsi, this time 68-52. Of those 19 games, the Hawks have still managed to win 14 of them. If you break that down by 5-on-5 Corsi numbers, the Hawks were behind 21 times with 12 wins, according to war-on-ice.com. What does it mean? It means the Hawks are either blocking a lot of shots, of which the Hawks were 12th in the league as of late Thursday night. But that's not a terribly high rate. Moreso, it means they are getting strong goaltending from Crawford. It's more proof of that strong season Crawford is having in net.
