Crawford makes 37 saves, Blackhawks top Blue Jackets

COLUMBUS -- Corey Crawford made 37 saves for his first win in 10 months, and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 at Nationwide Arena on Saturday.

Crawford's last win was Dec. 17 against the Minnesota Wild.
It was Crawford's second straight game since sustaining a concussion on Dec. 23 against the New Jersey Devils. He missed the final 47 games last season.
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Blue Jackets highlights]
"I felt really good," Crawford said. "I was reading plays well. I thought our defense was playing well. They were blocking shots."
Patrick Kane had two goals and an assist, Marcus Kruger scored, and Alex DeBrincat extended his point streak to seven games to start the season when he gave the Blackhawks (4-1-2) a 1-0 lead at 3:48 of the first period.
DeBrincat has 11 points (seven goals, four assists). He became the 10th Blackhawks player to score seven or more goals in their first seven games and, at age 20, is the youngest.

"At times we thought we were taking it to them," Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner said. "We had our chances. We didn't bury them. They capitalized on a few of them at the end of the game. That's what happened."
Zach Werenski tied it 1-1 for Columbus (4-3-0) at 12:09 during 4-on-4 play with his second goal the season. He took a pass from Markus Nutivaara and shot from between the circles.
The Blue Jackets had a goal disallowed with four minutes left when it was ruled that Jenner pushed the pad of Crawford off the line, allowing the puck to go in.
Crawford made 16 saves in the second period, and denied Boone Jenner 36 seconds into the third. Kane credited Crawford for keeping them in the game.

"We've got to play better in front of him, no doubt," Kane said. "It's one of those things, we played pretty well the first five games, then all of a sudden he comes back. Maybe you expect him to bail you out, which he has the past few games.
"We can play better in front of him, a little bit harder, a little more intense. When we got the intensity going at the end of the second there and into the third we started to take over the game."
Kruger made it 2-1 at 7:43 of the third period when a shot by Alexandre Fortin went off his skate.

"We had some traffic on the shot, a fortunate goal," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
That's when Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said the game got away.
"I thought we played a really good hockey game, by far our best of the year," he said. "I just hated us losing our patience the last five minutes. We just need to stay with it. We're only down a goal."
Kane extended the lead to 3-1 at 15:46, and made it 4-1 with an empty-net goal at 18:23.

They said it

"It's nice to see him play like that. That was vintage [Crawford]." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on goaltender Corey Crawford
"We had a lot of Grade A chances we didn't score on. They had a few chances and they did. That's how the game goes." -- Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski

Need to know

Kane has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in seven games. … Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews had his six-game point streak stopped. … Defenseman Brandon Davidson blocked two shots in 15:50 in his Chicago debut. He replaced Brandon Manning. … The Blackhawks were 0-for-3 on the power play, Columbus was 0-for-4. … Sergei Bobrovsky, playing his 400th NHL game, made 22 saves for the Blue Jackets.

What's next

Blackhawks: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, TVAS, NBCSCH, SUN, NHL.TV)
Blue Jackets: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-A, NHL.TV)