Blackhawks beat Ducks without Jonathan Toews

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It began with an acrobatic, one-handed effort by Dennis Rasmussen just to get the puck to the slot around Anaheim defenseman Kevin Bieksa. After that, it took Marcus Kruger violently chopping at the puck on the forecheck to dislodge it off Shea Theodore’s stick and back to the slot, where Ryan Hartman was waiting to bury the puck past John Gibson.

At the time, late in the second period, it gave the Blackhawks a three-goal lead. In hindsight, it was a massive play and the game-winning goal in a 3-2 Hawks victory Friday afternoon at the Honda Center And it was exactly what the Hawks needed with Jonathan Toews sidelined by an upper-body injury.

“Obviously, you’re missing your captain, you’re missing one of your better players,” Hartman said. “Everyone collectively needs to step up, and I think we did that.”

The ripple effect of removing Jonathan Toews from the Hawks lineup is severe, with every single aspect of the team affected from the drop of the puck — literally, as Toews is the only above-water faceoff taker on the team. The Hawks were going to need a big performance from Patrick Kane’s line, a well-timed contribution from the bottom six, and a good effort on special teams.

The Hawks got all of those things, plus another strong effort by Corey Crawford (34 saves). Kane had an assist on Artem Anisimov’s even-strength goal and scored on a power play, and Hartman provided the depth scoring as the Hawks staved off an Anaheim rally and survived just their fourth game without Toews since the start of the 2014-15 season. Hartman even filled in for Toews in the agitation department, his scuffles with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf substituting for Toews’ usual battles with longtime nemesis Ryan Kesler

The win snapped a modest two-game losing streak, and put the Hawks back at .500 (3-3-0) on the circus trip with Saturday’s finale against the Los Angeles Kings looming. The game started slowly, but seemed to gain urgency and significance as it wore on, culminating in a frantic third-period push by the Ducks.

“It seemed like the importance of the game got raised as the game went on,” Kane said. “We held down the fort there. Crow made some big saves and got out with the win. Big two points against a good team without maybe our most important player. You’ve got to feel good about that one.”

After the Hawks killed off a Michal Rozsival penalty (one that might have prevented a Ducks goal) midway through the first period, Brent Seabrook sprung Anisimov and Kane on a 2-on-1, which ended with Anisimov whacking in a loose puck in the crease. Kane, who admitted that Toews’ absence put even more offensive weight on his shoulders, made it 2-0 when he one-timed a Seabrook pass on a second-period power play.

The early lead was unusual, as the Hawks have trailed at some point in every game on this trip.

“We haven’t had the lead many times early,” Duncan Keith said. “It was nice to get the lead, keep the lead, and hang on.”

After Hartman made it 3-0 at 15:40 of the second, the Ducks immediately began their push-back. Ten seconds later, Nick Ritchie cut the lead to 3-1. The Hawks dodged a bullet at 5:34 in the third when Ondrej Kase’s apparent goal was waved off because officials ruled it was batted in. Anaheim got it back a few minutes later when Jakob Silfverberg, who hit the post twice earlier in the game, beat Crawford on a wraparound. The Ducks kept pushing after that, but the Hawks held on despite being outshot 36-25, and despite losing 74 percent of the faceoffs, including a dreadful 8-of-42 effort through the first two periods.

It’s still uncertain if Toews will be able to play Saturday against the Kings. But they at least now know what it takes to win without him. And it takes a lot.

“I thought we played a real good game in all areas,” Joel Quenneville said. “They had some good chances at the end, but basically for most of the game, it was what we were looking to do, and wanted to do.”

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus