Vinnie Hinostroza’s two third-period goals lift Hawks to wild win

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Nick Schmaltz is congratulated by teammates after his first-period goal on Tuesday night. (AP Photo)

DENVER — Joel Quenneville shook up his lines on Tuesday in an effort to get some offense from somewhere other than the second line. And he got it, as all six of the Blackhawks’ goals came from the third and fourth lines — and five of them from rookies.

On the other hand, Quenneville didn’t get much from his top line. Or his second line. Or his defense. Or his goaltender.

Against the lowly Colorado Avalanche, it was still good enough.

Vinnie Hinostroza scored twice in the third period — the first two-goal game of his career — and fellow rookie Tanner Kero had two goals and an assist as the Hawks won 6-4.

“It’s huge,” said Nick Schmaltz, who had the other rookie goal while showing renewed confidence and aggressiveness after his stint in the AHL. “You can’t rely on the top six to score every night. Those guys pretty much do, but they’re going to go through stretches where they don’t score one night. That’s when other guys have to step up.”

As bad as the Avalanche are — and they are bad, dead last in the NHL — they always give the Hawks fits, luring them into wide-open track meets. It’s almost always entertaining, and it’s almost never what the Hawks have in mind. And Tuesday night was no different.

The Hawks led 2-1 after one period as Schmaltz and Brent Seabrook scored, both off Dennis Rasmussen set-ups, around a Matt Duchene power-play goal. But the strong first period was squandered by a dreadful second period, which saw the Avs score three times (and the Hawks score once) in a span of 5 minutes, 5 seconds.

First, a Schmaltz turnover in the neutral zone led to Blake Comeau’s goal to tie it at 2-2. A failed Seabrook clear 63 seconds later led to Matt Nieto’s goal and a 3-2 Avs lead. Kero popped in a Trevor van Riemsdyk rebound 19 seconds after that to make it 3-3. And less than four minutes later, Duchene blew past Michal Kempny and roofed a shot past Corey Crawford to make it 4-3 Colorado.

Quenneville was more disappointed with his goalie than his defense, but neither acquitted themselves well on Tuesday.

“As a team, we played pretty bad there in the second and gave away a lead,” Hinostroza said. “But we came out in the third and everyone was flying out there.”

Especially Hinostroza, who turned on the afterburners to catch up to a lofted Seabrook pass and beat Semyon Varlamov on a breakaway to tie it 4-4. Hinostroza cashed in a Kero centering feed three minutes later to take the lead, and Kero — off a selfless play from the goal-starved Jonathan Toews — added an empty-netter in the final minute.

“Good response,” Quenneville said of the victory, which came on the heels of losses to red-hot Washington and Minnesota. “We were looking for some scoring from other guys. We talked about secondary scoring, and tonight they produced all the goals. Fun night for them, great third period and comeback for us.”

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus

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