Music: {allcanada} Toews, Blackhawks again beat Jets

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

{allcanada} Toews, Blackhawks again beat Jets

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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks didn't play loose with the lead Wednesday night at United Center.

Instead of letting an early two-goal lead melt away in the third period, as they've done a few times this season, the Blackhawks instead pushed the pedal to the floor in a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets.

It was the second comfortable win for Chicago against the Jets in five days. The Blackhawks won 5-1 at MTS Centre on Saturday in captain Jonathan Toews' homecoming.

Toews didn't score a point in the first game, but scored the first goal Wednesday night. Patrick Kane, Brandon Pirri and Patrick Sharp scored the other three for the Blackhawks (10-2-4), who've won four of their past five games.

Defenseman Duncan Keith finished with two assists to give him 12 for the season, and goalie Corey Crawford (24 saves) improved to 9-2-3 in 14 starts, including two against the Jets. Devin Setoguchi scored for Winnipeg (6-9-2), and Al Montoya (24 saves) took the loss in net.

Winnipeg played without star forward Evander Kane (lower-body injury) for the second game in a row.

Like the first meeting, it was a close game early. Toews started to change that with 2:31 left in the first period when he gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.

After getting out of the penalty box, Toews got right into the action by zipping a slick reverse pass to Kane for a prime scoring chance alone in the slot. Montoya, who's from Chicago, turned the shot away with a nice right pad save, but the Jets were unable to clear the zone.

Moments later, Patrick Sharp fed Toews near the front of the net and the Blackhawks captain tucked the puck under Montoya's pads for his eighth goal of the season and first since recording a natural hat trick at home Oct. 29 against the Ottawa Senators.

Kane made it 2-0 just six seconds before the horn sounded to end the first period, with a wrister from the left circle that beat Montoya high to the far side of the net. It was Kane's ninth goal and second in as many games, putting him back on top for the team lead in goals.

It took most of the middle period for the Blackhawks to strike again. Pirri eventually pushed it to a 3-0 lead with 1:58 left in the second by firing a laser into the top right corner from the slot to cap a breakaway set up by a nice pass from Ben Smith in the neutral zone.

It wasn't the only breakaway Montoya faced in the period. About midway through the second, he had to make a pad save to stop Marian Hossa's break, which was also created by a nice stretch pass.

A couple minutes later, Chicago got a power play after some highlight-worthy stickhandling by Kane in the offensive zone.

Just as he did in an advertising video that went viral during the preseason, Kane weaved around several Jets defenders in the offensive zone like they were orange cones. Eric Tangradi's trip was the only thing that stopped him.

Montoya also helped thwart that Blackhawks power-play opportunity, but he couldn't keep the dam from breaking. Sharp sniped his fourth of the season from the left circle, unassisted, four minutes into the third for a 4-0 lead.

Setoguchi made it 4-1 with his own unassisted goal almost five minutes later, at 8:40 of the third, to end Crawford's shutout bid.

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