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Byfuglien, Barker help Crawford to first shutout

Mar 6, 2008 - 5:34 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Defensemen Dustin Byfuglien and Cam Barker each a goal and an assist and rookie Corey Crawford made 19 saves to record his first career shutout as the Chicago Blackhawks skated to a 3-0 triumph over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

Patrick Sharp added an empty-net goal and rookie Patrick Kane recorded two assists for Chicago (33-28-6), which improved to 4-1-0 in its last five games and pulled within four points of eighth place in the Western Conference.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 25 saves for Anaheim (38-24-7), which had its six-game winning streak snapped and remained four points behind first-place Dallas (41-24-5) in the Pacific Division.

Byfuglien opened the scoring just 7:07 into the first period.

With Chicago on the power play, Barker's attempted centering feed deflected off Giguere's pads and remained loose in the crease. Byfuglien alertly slipped the puck past the 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy winner for his 15th goal of the season and second in as many games.

"When you get a power play early in the game, you need to capitalize," Byfuglien said. "That ended up starting off the game good for us. It seems like when we get the first goal, it leads to a lot of success for us."

That was all the offensive support needed by Crawford, who was making his first start since February 2, 2006.

The 23-year-old netminder stopped three shots in the first period and eight in each of the final two sessions to seal the win.

"The coaches just told me to play my game," Crawford said. "They said I don't have to win the game by myself, just take the game shot by shot."

Barker added some insurance nine minutes into the third period by wristing a shot toward the net from just outside the right faceoff circle during a man advantage. The puck deflected off Anaheim blue-liner Mathieu Schneider and past Giguere for his fourth goal of the season.

"It wasn't exactly a cannon from the blue line," Barker said. "We had some good screens in front of net. Byfuglien told me the puck might have hit one of their defensemen. It was a shot with eyes, I guess."

Sharp was credited with an empty-netter - his 33rd goal of the season - after he was hooked from behind during a breakaway with 91 seconds remaining.

"I was hooked and slashed pretty hard there," Sharp said. "As soon as I heard the whistle, I knew the refs were going to award me a goal. Next time, I would like to put it in the net."

Ducks captain Chris Pronger returned to action for the first time since suffering a jaw contusion in a 6-3 victory over the Blackhawks on February 24. The former Hart and Norris Trophy winner logged over 21 minutes of ice time and recorded four penalty minutes.

"We got outworked and Chicago played very well," Pronger said. "It was a night where we didn't play to our structure or to our level."

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle agreed.

"It was nice to get Chris back, but tonight was a simple case of us being outworked by Chicago," he said.