Blackhawks looking to break skid vs. Jets

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba – The Blackhawks reversed their regular-season woes against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night. Now they’ll try to do the same against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.

The Blackhawks have lost all four games to the Jets this season. Creating offense against Winnipeg has been a problem — it took them until Jan. 26 to score more than one goal against the Jets, and that was a 5-3 loss. In that game the Blackhawks finally fought their way to the net against a Winnipeg group that usually keeps them boxed out.

“We’ve done a pretty good job on this trip of finding a way to get screens, second opportunities by getting there,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “Tough loss last game. The first three games we didn’t play very well. Give them credit in all four games but certainly a tough loss against them last time. It looked like we were going to get something out of that game.”

The Blackhawks have won three in a row coming into this one and would like to put an end to the Jets’ hold on them much like they did the Wild’s.

[SHOP: Gear up, Blackhawks fans!]

“Obviously for us it’s huge points-wise to try and get that extra point or two, edge-wise, against Minnesota,” Jonathan Toews said. “For us, we had a really rough season against Minnesota last year and we wanted to play better than we played against them in the first game of the year. So same goes for Winnipeg. It’s a team that has had a lot of success against us. We need to prepare better, we need to come out and have much more respect for that team and what they can do. They have a lot of offense and a lot of ability and they always play great in their building. We’ll have to be ready for that and bring our best game.”

Corey Crawford will get the start. Marian Hossa took the morning off but is expected to play.

Broadcast information

Time: 7 p.m.

TV: CSN

Live stream: CSNChicago.com

Blackhawks forward lines

Nick Schmaltz -Jonathan Toews-Richard Panik

Artemi Panarin-Artem Anisimov-Patrick Kane

Dennis Rasmussen-Marcus Kruger-Marian Hossa

Ryan Hartman-Tanner Kero-Vinnie Hinostroza

Defensive pairs

Duncan Keith-Niklas Hjalmarsson

Michal Kempny-Brent Seabrook

Brian Campbell-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goaltender

Corey Crawford

Injuries

Michal Rozsival (lower body)

Jets forward lines

Andrew Copp-Mark Scheifele-Blake Wheeler

Nikolaj Ehlers-Bryan Little-Patrik Laine

Shawn Matthias-Adam Lowry-Joel Armia

Mathieu Perreault-Nicolas Petan-Drew Stafford

Defensive pairs

Tobias Enstrom-Dustin Byfuglien

Josh Morrissey-Jacob Trouba

Ben Chiarot-Paul Postma

Goaltender

Connor Hellebuyck

Injuries

Tyler Myers (lower body), Marko Dano (lower body)

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