Nick Foligno's joke leads to Blackhawks' shootout winner against Capitals

WASHINGTON — After Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno scored in a practice shootout honoring two Make-A-Wish kids Thursday, he jokingly yelled at coach Jeff Blashill to give him a chance in a real shootout.

Blashill did exactly that Saturday, and Foligno — who was previously 0-for-13 in his career — made good on his word by burying the sixth-round winner in the Hawks’ 3-2 shootout victory against the Capitals.

‘‘It’s funny,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘You do something [fun] like that, and you do see some stuff. Nick and I have talked about it: When you’re young, you fret over the shootout. The shootout can be a psychological barrier sometimes. I think he’s gotten to the point where he’s like, ‘I’m just going to go and see what happens.’ Good for him.’’

After fellow veteran Andre Burakovsky scored in the fifth round to keep the Hawks alive, Foligno said he popped up like a groundhog when he heard Blashill call his name next.

‘‘I didn’t give him a chance to second-guess it,’’ Foligno said. ‘‘I just jumped right on the ice. It felt good to score that for the guys, obviously. That was fun.’’

The Hawks are 3-1-1 since the Christmas break, earning two of those victories via shootout. They desperately needed some success in overtime/shootout games after starting the season 1-6 in them.

In contrast to trusting his veterans in the shootout, Blashill trusted his kids in overtime, sending out newly converted center Oliver Moore for two crucial faceoffs (one of which he won) and giving Nick Lardis (who later scored in the first round of the shootout) plenty of time, as well.

‘‘Ultimately, those guys have opportunities to be good three-on-three players, and you don’t know unless you try them,’’ Blashill said.

Blashill admitted Saturday morning to stealing a saying from Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti about ‘‘stacking great days on top of great days’’ in his team meeting. The Hawks fulfilled that cliché with an impressive follow-up to their victory Thursday against the Stars.

Ryan Donato got the Hawks off to a better start by scoring just 73 seconds into the game, and they continued a recent trend of generating more offensive-zone possession time, especially during the first two periods, before the Capitals pushed in the third.

Blashill said he thinks the injury absences of forwards Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar have forced the Hawks to refine their game in other ways — ways that should benefit them even when Bedard and Nazar return.

‘‘We’re building more of an [offensive] zone identity, which I think we needed to do, regardless,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘We had a lot of success off the rush, but it’s hard to just live in the rush, especially if you want to ever become a really good playoff team. [There are] very few rush chances at that point. We’ve really talked about a predictable mentality through the neutral zone and a predictable mentality in the ‘O’ zone.’’

Those adjustments include driving the middle harder, making smarter decisions about when to hold on to the puck and using the area below the goal line more strategically.

‘‘We’ve started to balance ourselves again, realize how we need to play and get to that identity,’’ Foligno said. ‘‘These are hard-fought wins. We knew that we were not going to outscore teams by seven without those two guys in the lineup. But we have enough skill.’’

Goalie Spencer Knight was also instrumental, saving 32 of 34 shots in his sharpest performance in a while.

During the Hawks’ trip to Washington in April, Knight maintained a great attitude about being on the victim’s end of Alex Ovechkin’s record-tying 894th goal, appreciating the historic aspect of the game and electric atmosphere despite the loss. Getting some revenge Saturday — and holding Ovechkin without a point — tasted sweet, though.

‘‘It’s always fun winning,’’ Knight said.