ST. LOUIS -- Corey Crawford has the Chicago Blackhawks on an early season roll.Crawford stopped 27 shots and Artemi Panarin scored 25 seconds into overtime, leading the Blackhawks over the St. Louis Blues 2-1 on Wednesday night for their seventh straight win.Crawford won his sixth consecutive game while improving to 15-5-5 against the Blues.Chicago has earned a point in nine straight games, thanks in part to Crawford, who has given up just six goals in his last six contests.Hes been phenomenal, Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook said. Hes been the backbone.Crawford made 11 stops in the third period, including a sliding kick save on Vladimir Tarasenko while nursing a 1-0 lead.Im in a good spot right now, Crawford said. I feel good. Im reading plays (well). Im patient when I have to be and aggressive when its time.Crawford is 7-3-1 this season.He has been outstanding, instrumental in winning most of these games, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. Again tonight, a couple of big saves.Panarin whipped a wrist shot from the slot past Jake Allen for his sixth goal of the season. The tally came just 1 second after St. Louis Alex Pietrangelo left the penalty box.Allen said he never saw the shot.I just heard it hit the net, Allen said. It was a tough way to go.Panarin, a Russian-born winger, does not speak English. His usual interpreter, center Artem Anisimov, left the game in the second period with an upper-body injury.Hes day-to-day, Quenneville said. Hell be all right.Pietrangelo tied the game with 2:11 left in the third on a drive from the point that squeezed past Crawford, who got a piece of the shot.Marian Hossa pounced on the rebound of a shot by Gustav Forsling and followed it in for a 1-0 lead early in the second period. It was his seventh goal of the season and sixth in the last seven games.Weve been in a lot of those games, close the whole way, Quenneville said. We seem to always find a way to get two points at the end of the night.Chicago has outscored opponents 30-15 during this nine-game run.It feels nice to have a streak like this, Seabrook said. We keep getting it done. Every game is big and all the points are big.Allen made 28 saves for the Blues. He played well but has lost three of his last four and fell to 5-4-2.This is the Blackhawks longest winning streak since they won 12 in a row from Dec. 29, 2015 to Jan. 19, 2016.St. Louis is struggling after starting the season with three successive wins.Were taking way too many penalties when the game is on the line, coach Ken Hitchcock said. Were having to extend a lot of energy with a short bench. It is not a good recipe.Game notes Anisimov had a career-high 11-game point streak snapped. ... St. Louis LW Alexander Steen is one goal shy of 200 for his career. ... The Blues placed D Joel Edmundson on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He will be re-evaluated in three weeks. ... The teams will meet on Jan. 2 in the Winter Classic at Busch Stadium. ... Chicago D Duncan Keith has 11 assists, tops among all defensemen. ... The Blues have hit the goalpost or crossbar 15 times this season, tops in the NHL.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Host Washington on Friday night in the first of back-to-back home games.Blues: Play at Central Division-rival Nashville on Thursday night.Ben McLemore Rockets Jersey . -- Matt Ryan needed one of the best games of his career to lead the Falcons and their depleted offence out of their three-game losing streak last week. Clint Capela Jersey .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. https://www.rocketsrookiesshop.com/Michael-Frazier-City-Edition-Jersey/ . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. Danuel House Rockets Jersey . The deal is pending a physical, assistant general manager Bobby Evans said. Traded from Seattle to Baltimore on Aug. 30, Morse also can play first base and right field to give manager Bruce Bochy some flexibility in writing his lineup. Austin Rivers Rockets Jersey . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville.I anchor SportsCenter late on Saturdays and Sundays. I usually get to sleep around 4 a.m. on both nights. This past Sunday I woke up at 11 a.m. (I average 4-6.5 hours of sleep a night) and saw the following tweet:Bob works for the Elias Sports Bureau. (Patrik Elias has no known connection with Elias as far as you know.)This is not a surprise. Scoring will never be what it was before, and the reasons are clear:1. The skating pool is only getting quicker and deeper.Everyone skates so well that time and space continue to dwindle. A potential scoring play is often broken up by an outreached stick from a player able to close quickly. The world is training players better and at a younger age, which has resulted in a deep pool of speed and agility. Also, improved and safer equipment, along with coaches and teammates demanding defense, has resulted in an epidemic of shot blocking.Possible solution: I really believe making all power plays 4-on-3 is one way that wouldnt offend (some) or dent the traditions of the game that some understandably hold dear. This would allow for more time and space, possibly less shot blocking and a higher power-play percentage. What it also would do is allow for occasional 3-on-3 time when the team on the power play takes a penalty. Also, when a power play ends, you have 4-on-4 time until the next whistle. This would allow just a few more opportunities of open ice for players to make plays without getting stick-checked or a shot-blocked.2. Goalies are only getting better with a deeper pool.This has been going on for a few years, but there are hordes of goaltending talent on the way. Goalies are getting coached at a very young age by very good coaches. They understand playing the odds to increase the chances of the puck hitting them, they have sound and smart positioning, and they know how to train for agility. Add hockey sense, size and natural athleticism, and it is hard to score goals from high school on up.Possible solution: Goalies have to remain safe and the equipment must offer full protection. However, there is room to make equipment smaller. You cant pour Cinnamon and Spice Instant Oatmeal in the crease to slow down the goalies, so the only answer to boost offense just a little would be a larger net to shoot at.dddddddddddd3. The net remains the same size.Goalies are bigger and better. Equipment is bigger and safer, eliminating the fear factor goalies had until around the mid-1990s. When offense suffered, baseball lowered the mound and made ballparks a little smaller. Football rewrote pass interference. Basketball eliminated hand checking and added the 3-point line. This made it more difficult to defend. Hockey hasnt done this. They dont think offense. They think defense. For some reason, thinking offense in hockey makes you a freak.Possible solution: Following through on pledges of smaller equipment would increase the open net area by a little, as stated above. But if there is a hesitance to do that because of possible injury, then just increase the size of the net a fraction. It would mean that those posts and crossbars you hear would turn into goals. Why is this so offensive? The game is nothing like it was in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, etc. Records never really matter much because the game changes so much over time.Yes, the game of hockey is fine. I love watching it on TV and I love going to games. I actually think the lower scoring and lack of fighting and big open-ice hits has hurt the at-the-game experience more than the TV experience. Today, you can attend a game that is 2-1 or 3-2 with no fights, no open-ice hits and few get-out-of-your-seat moments.Many games are saved or extremely augmented by the hair-on-fire 3-on-3 experience. Those overtimes are all offense, instinct and no overcoaching to put a drag on the excitement. I would just like to re-create those moments a little bit more during regulation and get a little more offense in the game. What is wrong with more 6-4 games? Thats basically a 42-28 football game. Is that an obscene football score?Competition for entertaining continues to grow. We want our game to be fun, to be talked about, to have a strong word-of-mouth essence. We want it to matter and have the great talent to shine on a nightly basis.Thats it. My yearly Lets get more offense blogumn.As you were. As I was. ' ' '