Kane scores his 44th; Toews sparks Hawks to 6-2 rout of Coyotes

The Blackhawks still are long shots to beat out the Stars and Blues for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. But after a second-half slump, they’re accomplishing a key goal — finishing strong and rounding into playoff form.

Though it was against the also-ran Arizona Coyotes, the indicators from a 6-2 victory before 21,884 at the United Center on Tuesday night were impressive — captain Jonathan Toews sparking the rout with a goal and assist in the first period; Andrew Ladd scoring twice; Patrick Kane scoring his 44th goal; three power-play goals in the second period; and a six-for-six performance from the penalty kill, including a short-handed goal by Toews.

“We’re getting better and better,” said Toews, who assisted on Richard Panik’s first-period goal and scored his 27th goal of the season and 250th of his career on a breakaway after a steal at the Hawks’ blue line. “We’re getting where we needed to be. We always think there’s room for improvement. We’ll keep working toward that.”

They can start with that on Thursday, when the Hawks face the Blues (48-23-9, 105) in a showdown at the United Center. Though the Hawks (47-26-7, 101 points) have won five of six games, they have not beaten a team currently in the playoffs since a 4-1 victory over the Red Wings on March 6.

The Hawks, who play at Columbus on Saturday night, would have to win their final two games, while the Stars and/or Blues lose their final two games to gain one of the top two spots in the Central Division and home-ice advantage.

The Hawks have scored 17 goals in three games without suspended defenseman Duncan Keith — much of it from their top six forwards, including a rejuvenated second line of Kane (goal, assist), Artemi Panarin (two assists) and Artem Anisimov. The Hawks power play is 6-for-12 in the last three games. The penalty kill is 17-for-17 with a short-handed goal since Marcus Kruger returned from a dislocated wrist.

“For the most part it was just a matter of time,” Toews said. “Kaner and Bread Man and Arty just decided to pick it up again. But I think as a team it starts with our defensive play. We’re really starting to come together in the right fashion in that face of the game. And that translates to offense.”

The one wrench was an injury to Anisimov, who was boarded by former Hawk Antoine Vermette in the second period and did not return. Anisimov is day-to-day with an upper body injury. “We’ll know more [Wednesday]. He should be OK,” coach Joel Quenneville said.

Vermette, who scored three game-winning goals in the playoffs for the Hawks last year, was given a game misconduct and five-minute major.

“Obviously that’s frustrating [to see Anisimov go out],” defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk said. “It’s a tough play there. You see Vermette coming in with a lot of speed there. I don’t think there was any intent behind it, knowing him as a guy. I think it was just coming in with a lot of speed and got a little out of control.”

The Hawks, already up 3-0 after Kane’s power-play goal at 6:24 of the period, scored twice on the ensuing power play — with Ladd scoring on a deflection of a van Riemsdyk shot from the blue line and a nifty move in front of goalie Louis Domingue after a pass from Kane to give the Hawks a 5-0 lead.

“It was nice [to score twice on that power play],” Toews said. “We had good movement. We were able to keep them in their zone for a long time and at a certain point something’s going to give. I think they were pretty tired at the end of those two shifts where we ended up scoring the goals. It was nice to see that confidence that we can create chances, but especially get the puck back after those initial shots.”

After the Coyotes’ Connor Murphy broke Scott Darling’s shutout in the third period, Andrew Desjardins scored off a nice feed from Kruger to give the Hawks a 6-1 lead. Darling, making his 10th consecutive start in place of injured starter Corey Crawford, stopped 29-of-31 shots to improve to 6-3-1 in that span.

“I liked the way we played for the most part,” Quenneville said. “[We] did some things in the last three games, when you look at the offense — 5-6-6 [goals] — we know we can score. The ongoing challenge is to check.”