After five weeks littered with them, the Blackhawks are ready to take a break from taking breaks.
The team had three hockey-free days wrapped around Christmas. They took four more full days off the ice during their off week in mid-January. Then came three more days of rest for All-Star weekend.
“Let’s play hockey,” coach Joel Quenneville said Tuesday before the Hawks defeated the Predators 2-1 at Bridgestone Arena for their second straight win and the home team’s first regulation loss since Jan. 2.
The Hawks were happy to oblige their coach, and they took whatever breaks they could on the ice along the way.
They caught their first one before their first game back from break began. Absent from the ice for the Predators were All-Star goalie Pekka Rinne and injured forward Filip Forsberg (15 goals, 19 assists), who has been on IR since Dec. 30 with an upper-body injury.
The breaks continued 3 minutes, 3 seconds into the first period, when David Kampf scored after Vinnie Hinostroza and Tomas Jurco teamed up to force a Predators turnover.
The three celebrated Kampf’s second score in his last three shots on goal (he had none the previous five games) with a group hug.
The Hawks celebrated again when Hinostroza casually pushed the puck past Juuse Saros from outside the circles with 5:27 left in the second to give the Hawks the lead again. Hawks All-Star Patrick Kane absorbed a hit before passing the puck to Nick Schmaltz, who found Hinostroza for what turned out to be the winner.
“One of the best players in the league is taking a hit to make a play, an unselfish play, that goes such a long way,” Hinostroza said. “He made a great play, Schmaltzy made a great pass and (I was) fortunate enough to see that go in. The more guys sacrificing themselves for the team, the better we’re going to do.”
Goalie Anton Forsberg did his part to make sure the Hawks were winners, too.
Forsberg rejected 42 of the 43 shots aimed at him, a career high. Twenty-two of those occurred during the third period.
“I felt good last game, too,” Forsberg said of a 5-1 win over the Red Wings before the All-Star break. “I felt even better today. I have to continue playing like this.
“I know it was a lot of shots. It didn’t feel like there were that many hard scoring chances.”
Not all the breaks went the Hawks’ way.
A goal from Kyle Turris was sandwiched between those two scores, just 2:12 into the second.
“It was stupid (of me),” Forsberg said. “It was nice that Vinnie covered it up with a nice goal there. Otherwise we might not be standing here.”
The Hawks’ standing in last place in the Central Division and four points and four teams out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference promised not to improve no matter what happened Tuesday.
But the two points they earned didn’t hurt.
If the Hawks are to shorten their next scheduled break, as in summer break, they’ll have to steer their own way — and get a little help from their enemies along the way.
“Our division, and our conference, there’s so many teams competing for playoff spots. Everybody has that belief,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “You’re going up against that every night, you’re going to have to earn every bit of success you get.
“We just have to go out there and do it.”
The first step was taken Tuesday.
Paul Skrbina’s three stars
1. Anton Forsberg, Hawks: Stopped 42 of the 43 shots he saw.
2. Vinnie Hinostroza, Hawks: Scored winning goal, had assist.
3. David Kampf, Hawks: Scored second goal in last six games.
Up next: At Canucks, 9 p.m. Thursday; WGN-9, WGN-AM 720.
Twitter @ChiTribSkrbina
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