Corey Crawford’s shutout leads Blackhawks to 3-0 win over Flyers

The Blackhawks have a long way to go to prove they’re still a contender to be feared. But a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night at the United Center was a reminder of a universal truth: As long as Corey Crawford is still Corey Crawford, the Hawks still have a chance to be the Hawks.

“I always knew he was a good goalie, but until you actually play in front of him, you don’t realize how good he is,” said defenseman Cody Franson, playing his fourth game for the Hawks after nine years elsewhere in the NHL.

“He’s one of those guys that people don’t necessarily talk about when they talk about [Carey] Price and [Jonathan] Quick and those guys. But I think he’s up there with those guys. He makes big saves at big times. He handles the puck as well as any of them. He’s very sound positionally, and he’s a great teammate. He’s a character guy.”

Mired in a three-game losing streak, the Hawks leaned on their two-time Stanley Cup-winning goalie to snap out of it. Crawford stopped 35 shots for his first shutout of the season and 22nd of his career, and Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews scored 20 seconds apart in the second period as the Hawks (6-5-2) won for only the second time since Oct. 14.

“With this group, we never really freak out,” Crawford said. “We don’t lose our minds. It’s early in the season. You want to gain ground. But at the same time, you don’t want to create something that’s not really there.

“We played well in the other games. We just didn’t come up with wins. You just keep playing. You stick with it. You can’t let a streak like that affect you and make it worse. We’re fine. We know how to play hockey. We just gotta keep going.”

It wasn’t exactly a premier performance overall by the Hawks, but there were a couple of positive signs. Anisimov scored on a rebound for a power-play goal that ended a streak of 18 consecutive power-play failures, including three earlier in the game. Seconds later, Toews scored on a breakaway for his first goal in eight games. Rookie Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal that clinched it with 1:49 to play.

No matter how much they struggle, the Hawks are pretty good at playing with purpose without panicking.

“It’s a balance of having that urgency and playing with a little emotion,” Toews said. “Playing [ticked] off, but also not forcing it too much where you’re going to get too tight and start making mistakes and that goes in the wrong direction, too.

“Whether you’ve been in this room a long time or not, I think everyone can get that feeling here — let’s go out there and play. Let’s have confidence. We’ve got a ton of ability. A ton of talent here. Let’s keep it simple, and the little plays and goals are going to come.”

Anisimov’s power-play goal was textbook — Anisimov won a faceoff to Brandon Saad, who passed to Patrick Kane, who fired a cross-ice pass to Franson for a one-timer from the circle that created a rebound for Anisimov in front of the net. Toews scored 20 seconds later, and that was all Crawford needed.

“We’ll take the win,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ll take some areas that we were better — power play, penalty kill was good. But we can still be better in our team game.”

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Email: mpotash@suntimes.com