In a complete game effort, the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night, 4-1.
Former Hawk, Vinnie Hinostroza struck twice in the win.
The Blackhawks lost despite getting number one goalie Corey Crawford back in the net for the first time since December 2017.
“I think I felt better in the second and third (period),” said Crawford, who missed the final 47 games last season after sustaining a concussion in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 23, 2017. “But they really didn’t get that many opportunities early. It was nice. I think they flipped one in for the first one, so that was kind of good just to get in it and feel one early, and I mean, we were close in that one all game and we created a lot.”
Antti Raanta made 33 saves to pick up the win.
“Our line was having a great shift. I think we had a lot of [offensive zone] time all night, [Michael] Grabner and [Brad] Richardson. … We played well tonight, I think. Had a lot of time in the O zone, they got the puck up to the D, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson made a great pass to me, looking at the net, passed it over to me, I timed it, just collected it and put it in,” Hinostroza said on scoring the first of his two goals.
Erik Gustafsson scored Chicago’s lone goal.
“I guess when you’re not playing in as many games, you’ve got to do a better job of focusing and getting into your rhythm,” Toews said after the loss coming following a four-day break. “It’s early in the season, but when you get rest, you gotta take advantage of it and do what you gotta do to be mentally ready. Like I said, we didn’t do that well enough tonight.”
Lawson Crouse and Clayton Keller also scored for Arizona.
“[Crouse] scored a big goal for us there in the first,” Hinostroza said. “That was our first 5-on-5 goal of the season, so [Crouse] and [Keller] made a great play there and nice to see them score, and it kind of got our team going.”
[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Crawford made 27 saves in the loss.
“Surprised, happy, good for him. I thought he was in control, he handled the puck around the net well, his movement was excellent, anticipated well, on top of his crease, stopped some real dangerous looks,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said of Crawford. “The first goal, I didn’t like how we played it. The other goals, definitely could have been better in those areas. We didn’t give up a ton of chances, but the ones they got were A-plus.”
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