Kari Lehtonen stood on his head for most of the first 55 minutes of the game. Corey Crawford stopped a penalty shot in the second period. But the biggest save of Thursday's 3-2 Blackhawks victory over Dallas was made by Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith.

As the final seconds of the second period ticked away, Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski fired a shot from the point. Crawford got a piece of the puck, but it trickled through his legs and towards the yawning goal, when Keith -- with less than a second left in the period -- lunged for it and swept it aside just as it was about to cross the goal line.

Keith's motivation was pretty simple.

"I don't want to be on [the ice] for a goal," he said. "Just saw it squeak through his legs, so quick I could, I got my stick on it, and luckily it didn't go in."

It would have been a gut-punch of a goal, considering the Stars' Loui Eriksson scored shorthanded with less than a second left in the first period.

"Back-to-back dying-second goals, those are tough to come back from," said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, who was glad to see Keith get more active on offense, too.

Crawford was grateful for the bailout, and to head into the second intermission down 2-1 instead of 3-1.

"He's quick on everything," Crawford said of Keith. "Lucky for me, he was quick on that. I think maybe I owe him now for that. But Duncs does everything great, so it doesn't surprise me he makes a play like that."