Crawford, Subban help Blackhawks shut out Blues in exhibition

Corey Crawford made 11 saves before exiting in the second period of a 4-0 win by the Chicago Blackhawks against the St. Louis Blues in an exhibition game at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Wednesday.

Crawford did not participate in voluntary workouts and missed all but the last day of training camp on July 25 following a positive test for COVID-19. Malcolm Subban made 10 saves after replacing Crawford at 10:06 of the second.

"I think it's great to have [Crawford] back," said forward Brandon Saad, who gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 7:40 of the second period. "We have confidence in all of our goalies, but for him to have a couple days of practice and look like he never missed a beat out there, he's an incredible goaltender. He anchors our team."

Crawford was 16-20-3 with a 2.77 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and one shutout in 40 games (39 starts) this season. After Robin Lehner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 24, Crawford started Chicago's final eight games before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

"He's solid," said Blackhawks forward Dylan Strome, who scored to make it 2-0 at 9:12 of the second. "I think he just calms us all down. He has all that playoff experience. He's been great all year. It's nice to get him back. I think he's only been on the ice three or four times. Obviously, we feel comfortable with him."

Vladimir Tarasenko had four shots in 15:07 of ice time in his first game for the Blues since sustaining an injury to his left shoulder on Oct. 24 that required surgery.

"I think you could see he got comfortable as the game went on, made a couple of good plays on the power play," St. Louis captain Alex Pietrangelo said. "I'm sure he was nervous. When you go that long without playing, whether it's a preseason game or not, it's tough. But you can see he can still shoot the puck. He made some good plays.

"Like the rest of us, but especially him, he plays. He's going to keep getting better. He's kind of an X-factor we haven't had all year that can really draw some attention."

After leading NHL rookies with 30 goals in 68 games this season, Dominik Kubalik scored twice on the power play in the third period. He gave the Blackhawks a 3-0 lead on a one-timer at 5:04 before scoring from the high slot to push the lead to 4-0 at 12:06.

Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Kirby Dach each had two assists for Chicago, which is the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference and will begin its best-of-5 series in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers against the Edmonton Oilers, the No. 5 seed, at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the Western Conference hub city, on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN).

"It's just a step in the process here to prepare for Saturday," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. "So we're not going to get too high. We're not going to think we're better than we are."

Jordan Binnington made 11 saves on 13 shots for St. Louis before being replaced at the start of the third period by Jake Allen, who made eight saves.

"You can tell the puck was bouncing quite a bit. We weren't clean," Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "When it's like that, you really have to take care of it and not force turnovers, and we had way too many turnovers. But it's an opportunity for us to sharpen up and realize it's going to be tough and we have to find a way to work through those nuances of the game."

St. Louis coach Craig Berube said he expects improvement when the Blues play the Colorado Avalanche in their first round-robin game at Rogers Place on Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, TVAS2, ALT, FS-MW, NHL.TV). They also play the Vegas Golden Knights (Aug. 6) and Dallas Stars (Aug. 9) to determine seeding for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"Overall it wasn't good enough," Berube said. "I didn't think we possessed the puck enough and when we did have it, our execution wasn't good and we ended up giving it back to them. Unforced errors.

"Once the real games start, we're going to be better, for sure. We're going to possess the puck better, for sure. But I would've liked to have seen more of that tonight."

NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report

Video: Kubalik leads Blackhawks to 4-0 win vs. Blues