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Crawford, Blackhawks welcome Stars to Chi-town

Dec 8, 2010 - 4:03 PM (Sports Network) - Red-hot goaltending from Chicago rookie Corey Crawford will prevent Marty Turco from facing the only other club he has ever played for on Wednesday night.

He won't be the only big-name Blackhawk to miss tonight's clash with the Dallas Stars either as forward Patrick Kane won't be on the ice for this matchup at the United Center.

Kane suffered an apparent leg injury in Sunday's 4-2 victory over the Flames after he fell awkwardly into the boards during his first shift of the game. The 22-year-old, who has 11 goals and 16 assists in 28 games this season, is expected to miss three weeks of action according to head coach Joel Quenneville.

"We're hoping that's the maximum," Quenneville said on Tuesday. "We're going to leave it as a lower body [injury] and I think you can speculate where it is, but certainly that's the extent of it and he's progressing right now."

Kane has missed just three games since the Blackhawks took him first overall in the 2007 draft. He sat out a pair of games in January of 2009 with a sprained ankle and missed one game this season due to illness.

Chicago is already without forward Marian Hossa, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury and isn't expected back for another two weeks.

Even without Kane, Chicago netted four power-play goals in besting Calgary, getting two from Dave Bolland and one from both Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell. That surge helped Chicago win for the fourth time in five games and for the seventh time in its last 10. The 'Hawks are also 2-1-0 on a four-game homestand that ends tonight.

Crawford, making his fourth straight in five games, finished with 24 saves to win his sixth straight start. Quenneville will stick with the hot goaltender tonight as Crawford makes his first career start against Dallas. The 25-year- old has faced them once in relief, stopping 10-of-12 shots faced in around 33 minutes of action.

With Crawford getting the start, Turco will not face his former club for the first time. Turco was drafted by Dallas in the fifth round of the 1994 draft, going 262-154-37 with 26 ties, 40 shutouts and a 2.31 goals-against average over nine seasons and 509 games.

He left Dallas as the franchise's all-time leader in wins and shutouts, signing a one-year deal with Chicago in the offseason.

"[Crawford's] playing well, he's hot and he's winning when he's in there. What else can you say? I don't have a problem with that," said Turco, who has allowed 14 goals over a personal three-game losing streak.

Turco should still get a chance to face the Stars this season with three games remaining in this season series. Chicago has won six of its last eight versus Dallas as well as three of four and six of the last eight played in the Windy City.

Dallas comes to town after having a six-game winning streak halted with Monday's 3-2 shootout loss in Columbus. The Blue Jackets' Rich Nash forced overtime on a power-play goal with 46.1 seconds left in regulation and Columbus scored twice in the final session on Dallas netminder Kari Lehtonen.

Lehtonen finished with 27 saves and both Brad Richards and Steve Ott scored for the Stars, who are still 8-1-2 over their last 11 games.

"We played a strong game and then it came down to the last [minute]," Stars winger James Neal said. "It's tough."

Lehtonen has faced the Blackhawks just once before, stopping 25-of-27 shots faced in a loss while with the Thrashers on Feb. 11, 2009.