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 Left winger Kris Versteeg scored twice and center Jonathan Toews
notched a goal and an assist to lead Chicago to a 5-0 victory over
Montreal on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Blackhawks, who
were 1-3 in their last four, with only two goals in those defeats.
"It's a good feeling in here right now," defenseman Duncan Keith
said. "We know that we've kind of been struggling to score goals
lately and I thought we did a good job of playing all five guys
together out there on the ice and working as a team.
"We've had some good chances over the last little while but didn't
always get the bounces. But we stayed positive and it worked out
well tonight."
Center Brad Richards and right winger Patrick Kane also scored for
Chicago (7-5-1), which scored more than two goals for just the
fourth time in 13 games this season.
Goaltender Corey Crawford, a native of nearby Chateauguay, Quebec,
made 28 saves for the Blackhawks for his first shutout of the
season.
 Canadiens goalie Carey Price stopped 27 shots for Montreal, which
has now lost three straight.
Two power-play opportunities early in the first opened the door for
Montreal (8-4-1) to get the scoring started but the club failed to
connect.
It's been a woeful start to the season for the Canadiens'
man-advantage units, with just three power-play goals to its credit
-- and none since Oct. 16 and 18.
"We've got to stick to what's brought us success and I think we got
away from it a little bit there and they capitalized," said
Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban. "They stuck to their plan. We got
some power plays, we didn't generate enough momentum on them and
that can hurt you in a game like this."
Chicago came close to breaking the ice midway through the first
period but was denied twice in a matter of seconds on a remarkable
effort from Price. The Canadiens netminder made the stick save on
left winger Jeremy Morin's initial shot, sending the puck in the air
and then dived on to his crossbar to keep it from landing in the
net.
Shortly thereafter, the Canadiens' habit of giving up the first goal
continued. On the power play, Toews deflected blue-liner Duncan
Keith's point shot for his 200th career goal at 11:19.
Montreal outshot Chicago 11-5 in the first period and was up 19-9 on
the clock just past the six-minute mark of the second period. Then
the Blackhawks started to pick up the pace.
Versteeg put the Blackhawks ahead 2-0 at 9:57 of the middle frame
when a sharp-angle shot hit a Canadiens player and went past Price.
At 2:22 of the third, left winger Patrick Sharp's shot from just
outside the bottom of the circle hit an unattended Richards' stick
in front of the net.
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"You look at a lot of our goals, actually pretty much all of them
are around the net and going to the net," Kane said. "An important
part of trying to score goals in this league is to try to get in
front of the net and you see what happens when you get there.
"I thought we played pretty well from the start of the second on and
kind of took over the game, had a lot of chances. Hopefully that's a
sign of things to come."
Held off the shot clock for the bulk of the second and early in the
third, the Canadiens finally added to their total nearly five
minutes into the final stanza.
Kane made it 4-0 at 12:31 when Toews, with a perfect feed as he went
from right to left at the circles, found him streaking in for his
fourth of the season.
The Canadiens won't have much time to dwell on the loss, heading to
Buffalo for a tilt against the Sabres on Wednesday night. And while
they've allowed 11 goals in their last two games, they know what
they have to do to get through their recent struggles.
"We've got to stay positive as much as possible," center Tomas
Plekanec said. "Take a step back, start from the basics. It's not
the first time we've gone through this. We went through it last year
and the year before. We have to start doing the little plays right,
simple passes, nothing complicated. We've got to fight through it as
a team."
NOTES: Canadiens RW/LW Michael Bournival was a healthy scratch for
every game this season before making his 2014-15 debut against the
Blackhawks, replacing LW Travis Moen. ... Chicago scratched D Michal
Roszival and LW Daniel Carcillo remained sidelined with a knee
injury. ... Montreal C Tomas Plekanec played in his 691st career
game, all with the Canadiens, tying him with D Jacques Laperriere on
the Habs' games played list. ... Blackhawks LW Patrick Sharp left in
the third period after suffering an apparent leg injury and did not
return.
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