Dec. 14--Corey Crawford has allowed just two goals in his last four games. It should come as no surprise that the Blackhawks have won each of those four games, the latest being Sunday's 4-0 win over the Canucks in which Crawford made 30 saves. The lone blip on the Hawks' radar over the last week was their woeful 5-1 offering in Nashville when Scott Darling was in net. You can read more about Crawford's night and Patrick Kane extending his point streak in the game story on our site. Here are other notes:
Playing their game
Looking at the statistics from war-on-ice, the Hawks had one of their best performances of the season when it came to even-strength puck possession. They led in Corsi For, or total shot attempts, 55-38 on Sunday. That's a Corsi-For percentage of 59.1, which is tied for seventh this season in the Hawks' season. The Hawks have been inconsistent in their puck-possession game this season, but Sunday's was a step in the right direction in re-establishing that part of their game.
Mashinter gets on the board
Sunday was a long time coming for Brandon Mashinter. The Hawks winger is 27 and has played parts of four NHL seasons. He has been up with the Hawks for over a month and finally Mashinter got his first NHL goal Sunday with 9.8 seconds remaining off a faceoff in the Canucks' zone. It wasn't an empty-netter either. Goaltender Ryan Miller was in the net trying to stop it.
"I like his thought process, his quickness, positionally aware, around the net," Quenneville said. "At the time, it's great to score at any time, so nice to get his first. I think his play overall has been real good."
Meanwhile, center Dennis Rasmussen scored his second goal and potentially robbed Bryan Bickell of one when he stuffed in a Bickell shot that was trickling toward the goal line.
Faceoff facts
The Hawks won 64 percent of their faceoffs Sunday night. That may not mean much until you realize that was their best performance all season, according to war-on-ice.com. Maybe it is no coincidence the Hawks had one of their best puck-possession nights of the season when they were winning nearly two out of every three faceoffs. Jonathan Toews won 12 of his 15 draws, while Marcus Kruger won 11 of 16.
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