Corey Crawford’s 48-save shutout carries Blackhawks to fifth straight victory

MONTREAL — The Blackhawks still might be long shots to make the playoffs. But Corey Crawford gave everybody yet another reminder that when he’s on his game, anything is possible.

Fully recovered from an illness that forced him to leave after two periods against the Maple Leafs, Crawford stopped 48-of-48 shots in a virtuoso performance in his hometown of Montreal to lead the Blackhawks to a 2-0 victory over the Canadians on Saturday night at Bell Centre for their fifth consecutive victory.

Connor Murphy and Brendan Perlini scored for the Hawks (32-30-9, 73 points in 71 games), who were four points behind the Coyotes (77 points in 71 games) for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference, with the Wild (74 points in 71 games) and Avalanche (72 points in 71 games) also ahead of them. The Wild played the Rangers and the Coyotes hosted the Oilers later Saturday night.

Crawford’s outstanding play continued his history of playing well against his hometown team and particularly in Montreal. Crawford is now 5-0-2 in his career against the Canadiens at Bell Centre, with a .971 save percentage and 1.14 goals-against average.

After a strong first period netted nothing, the Hawks took a 1-0 lead at 3:04 of the second period when Murphy beat Carey Price from the slot after a well-timed feed from Dylan Strome.

The Hawks had scoring opportunities the rest of that period — most notably when Dylan Sikura hit the crossbar from the right circle off a pass from Jonathan Toews — but it was Crawford’s stronger-by-the-minute excellence played the bigger role in keeping the Hawks in the lead.

Crawford made 17 saves in the period — none better than a glove save from close range on a point-blank shot by Artturi Lehkonen off a rebound of a shot by Victor Mete.

The Hawks return home to play the Canucks (29-32-10) on Monday night and the Flyers (34-29-8) on Thursday at the United Center.