Blackhawks start six-game trek with 7-4 win

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith stops the Blue Jackets' Derek Dorsett during the third period. (Chris Russell/MCT)

By Brian Hamilton

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Right on time, a power surge accompanied the Blackhawks into an unsettled stretch run that began Tuesday evening. Of course, it was an actual surge, an electrical glitch that took out a bank of lighting at Nationwide Arena and cut the first period 39 seconds short.

But eventually the lights came on in every sense. A 7-4 victory over the Blue Jackets was the necessary positive first move with the season's end just over the horizon and a six-game road trek at hand, even if the well-short-of-announced-crowd of 12,568 meant there were few witnesses to it.

The Hawks demonstrated some grit after demonstrating some dicey play, twice coming from behind and ultimately seizing control with four goals over the second and third periods. Jonathan Toews led the way with a goal and two assists, with Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa each adding a goal and an assist.

"We realize every game from here on out is going to be like a playoff game, and it was nice to see everybody respond to battle for those two big points," said defenseman Brent Seabrook, who collected two assists.

Marty Turco got the nod in goal and made 29 saves after watching Corey Crawford start 10 of 11 games in January. It may have been a bit of a team-wide wake-up call after Crawford struggled just before the All-Star break: With no time to dawdle now, players must get the job done.

"It was a battle for me," Turco said. "It's never great giving up four, but we won, and we had a tremendous amount of character and battle to do so."

Maybe more battle than the Hawks would have liked. The Blue Jackets' Derek Dorsett opened the scoring, but the Hawks followed with scores from Nick Leddy and Duncan Keith -- with Keith ending a 15-game goal-free streak in the process.

That was the first answer. The more important one followed the Blue Jackets scoring two goals in 42 seconds at the outset of the second period, prompting coach Joel Quenneville to burn his timeout for a "kick in the butt," as Seabrook put it.

"You don't expect to score four straight and you don't want to have to," Toews said. "But it seems like we always respond to those timeouts, especially when we gave up multiple goals in a row."

Viktor Stalberg kick-started the run with a goal 15 seconds after serving a roughing penalty, and then Kane and Toews added their tallies to make it a 5-3 lead after two periods.

There was little drama after the Hawks stymied a Blue Jackets 5-on-3 advantage in the third, and even less after Dave Bolland made it four straight scores and a three-goal lead. The Hawks had ample answers Tuesday, with 31 games left to keep it that way.

"It just seems this team is getting a little bit more and more confidence as games go along, getting a little less frustrated and just focused on moving forward," Turco said. "We're going to need a ton of that going ahead."

Source: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2011/02/hawks-game-day-stretch-run-starts-in-columbus.html

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