Blackhawks edge Devils as Alex DeBrincat’s long-awaited awakening takes second step

NEWARK, N.J. — The Blackhawks beat the Devils 2-1 in a shootout Friday to earn a sweep of back-to-back road games.

That’s very important in the short term.

Alex DeBrincat scored on both nights, snapping a 12-game goal drought and increased his season goal pace from 15 to 20 literally overnight. He remains well shy of last year’s 41-goal breakout, but the on-ice results are finally trending in the right direction for the Hawks’ newest core member.

And that’s very important for the long term.

“The chances were there, it just wasn’t going in for him,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “And he’s the type of player that can go on a run, so it would be great for our team if he did. But the important thing that I want to see is, ‘Can you continue to play well away from the puck and continue to generate chances?’ ”

On Thursday in Boston, DeBrincat beat Tuukka Rask cleanly with a perfectly placed wrist shot early in the third period, the kind of snipe that not every NHL player can execute and that makes DeBrincat such a star when not snakebitten.

On Friday, DeBrincat’s goal was far uglier: an awkward backhand of a Patrick Kane rebound, which barely dribbled past P.K. Subban and Jonathan Toews into the net.

“Just bounced out to me, got a backhander on it and tried to put it in the net,” DeBrincat said. “And it went in. Sometimes those go in, sometimes they don’t.”

Those are the goals that weren’t remembered but still counted towards DeBrincat’s lofty totals over his first two seasons, and they’ll again count just the same this year.

It had also proved to have a huge impact on the game’s result.

After an undisciplined first period in which the Hawks committed three minor penalties and surrendered a goal on the third one, the visitors finally drew their own power play midway through the second period, and DeBrincat made it count.

That 1-1 score held up the rest of the way, with Corey Crawford (29 saves) and Mackenzie Blackwood (28 saves) both turning in excellent outings, until Kirby Dach scored a fifth-round winner in his first career shootout attempt — a poised, smooth move to the backhand and a shot lofted over Blackwood’s pad.

“I have three moves in my head and whatever one the goalie bites on, I move to that side of my body, whether it’s forehand or backhand,” Dach said. “I’ve had a couple shootouts in junior and it worked, so I went back to that and it went in.”

Colliton credited the back-to-back sweep to the Hawks’ entourage of player mothers, who traveled with the team on the road trip. Colliton smiled when saying “it’s tough not be in a good mood around your mom.”

Regardless of the formula, though, these volatile Hawks return home with two victories by the narrowest of margins and a renewed sense of optimism, at least for now.

Those margins easily could’ve flipped against them if not for DeBrincat’s long-awaited awakening. As the team seeks to climb back into the playoff picture, a lengthy hot streak from their finally un-cursed star would be hugely beneficial.

“Anytime you’re around the net and you get a chance, it’s got a good chance to go in,” DeBrincat said. “If I can find those areas a little bit more, I can hopefully bang some home.”