You can neutralize the New Jersey Devils’ famed neutral-zone trap.
With speed.
And the Blackhawks killed the Devils with speed en route to a 6-2 victory Tuesday night that extended their winning streak to three. The rejuvenated Hawks improved to 5-1-3 in their last nine games on the road, and they have outscored their opponents 17-4 while going 4-1-1 in the last six games overall.
Eric Daze scored two goals and added an assist in the second period, the Hawks’ most dominant 20 minutes of the season. They outscored the Devils 4-0 and outshot the best defensive team in the NHL 17-2 to run their unbeaten streak here to seven (2-0-5), dating back to 1990.
“Can we play any better?” said Brent Sutter, who got the Hawks rolling with a shorthanded goal at 12 minutes 50 seconds of the first period to tie the Devils (25-11-2) 1-1. “You always can play better.”
Daze broke the tie at 4:27 in the second period when he poked the puck away from Bill Guerin, took a pass from Jean-Yves Leroux and wristed a shot past Mike Dunham. Just 2:02 later on a power play, Daze set up James Black’s seventh goal of the season, and the Hawks (14-18-7) were in business.
“Once we got skating and going after them on the forecheck and making them turn over the puck, we were in the game,” coach Craig Hartsburg said.
“We used our speed to set up our second and third goals, and after that we took over,” said Daze, whose 14 goals lead the team.
Tony Amonte blew past Scott Stevens to set up Gary Suter’s sixth goal at 11:52 of the second, and Daze put an exclamation point on the period with a rebound goal at 16:32. Alex Zhamnov made it 6-1 with a power-play goal at 6:08 of the third.
“The last five or six games, we’ve been so committed to doing all the little things right,” said Steve Dubinsky, who set up Sutter’s goal.
They were right on the money Tuesday night.
