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Rookies look to help Blackhawks to third straight win

Oct 23, 2007 - 1:20 PM Columbus (3-3-1) at Chicago (5-3-0) 8:30 pm EDT

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Blackhawks had problems scoring a season ago. Thanks to a pair of rookies, that's not the case early this season.

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will try and help the Blackhawks to their third straight win when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Chicago, which scored the second-fewest goals in the league last season, has been bolstered by the 18-year-old Kane and the 19-year-old Toews en route to scoring 11 goals in its last two games.

The first overall pick of the 2006 draft, Kane leads the team with nine points and had a pair of assists as the Blackhawks scored five goals in the third period of a 6-4 win over Toronto.

Toews, who was the third overall pick, had an assist in the win. He has two goals and four assists in six games.

Chicago's scoring spree has made goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin's job less stressfull. Khabibulin, who has a 2.32 goal-against average, stopped 37 shots in a 5-3 win over Colorado on Friday.

As for Columbus, it has lost three of four after falling 4-1 to Vancouver on Saturday. The Blue Jackets outshot the Canucks 14-0 in the second period and failed to take advantage of power-play opportunities, going 1-for-10.

Netminder Pascal Leclaire, who is just 1-2-0 with a 3.63 GAA lifetime against the Blackhawks, stopped 15 shots in the loss.