Blackhawks escape Dallas with unlikely victory after Nick Lardis' shootout winner

DALLAS — The Blackhawks were dealt an extremely tough hand Saturday in terms of travel logistics, injuries and matchup.

They persevered through it all.

Rookie forward Nick Lardis’ goal in the fourth round of a shootout lifted the Hawks to a 4-3 road victory against the Stars, snapping their six-game losing streak.

Head coach Jeff Blashill showed a bit more trust in Lardis than he had in previous games, even giving him a shift in overtime, and the young sniper eventually rewarded his faith.

‘‘He’s a goal-scorer,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘We thought he could give us a chance, especially in the situation to win it. It’s two different pressures — whether you’ve got a chance to win it or whether you’re keeping your team alive. For a young player, putting them in a spot where they have a chance to win it is important.’’

The NHL prohibits team activities during the Dec. 24-26 holiday break, so the Hawks had to fly to Dallas on Saturday morning. They opted not to hold a morning skate because of the considerable length of the flight, meaning their first time on the ice since Tuesday was for warmups.

‘‘These are hard days,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘I’ve done it a lot of different ways, and it hasn’t been great. I thought, ‘Let’s try this.’ ’’

Plus, the Stars have the second-best record in the league, and the Hawks were without four important forwards: Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Nick Foligno and Ilya Mikheyev.

An early Alex Vlasic-to-Tyler Bertuzzi goal made it clear the Hawks weren’t going to roll over, however, and they maintained that energy throughout the game. Vlasic earned the primary assist on another goal by Bertuzzi — his 18th of the season — to tie the score at 3 with 7:35 left.

‘‘We wanted to go to work and show [the Stars] it wasn’t going to be an easy night,’’ Vlasic said. ‘‘And I felt like we did that.’’

Soderblom responds

Backup goalie Arvid Soderblom needed a quality start after a string of poor performances — both by him and by the Hawks in front of him — and he delivered. He stopped 28 of 31 shots to earn his first victory since Nov. 18.

Blashill credited Soderblom as a big part of the penalty kill, in particular. The Hawks went four-for-four against the Stars’ excellent power play.

‘‘As the game went along, he got better and better,’’ Blashill said.

Soderblom has worked lately on one-on-one situations, which paid off with breakaway saves on Jamie Benn and Mikko Rantanen in the third period, not to mention the shootout.

‘‘[I wanted to] have that confidence and not back up too much, stay out there, challenge the shooters and take away net,’’ Soderblom said. ‘‘Those extra saves that I did today, I want to keep doing that for the team to have a chance in every game. That’s where I know my standard is.’’

Looking ahead

As the holiday roster freeze lifts, the Hawks will host the Penguins on Sunday.

Another home game Tuesday against the Islanders lies around the corner, but the Hawks nonetheless plan to practice Monday — an extremely rare thing after a back-to-back set.

‘‘We’re going to get something done in that day,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘What happens when you don’t practice is you lose those habits and structure. You can see it. I talked to [Flyers head coach] Rick Tocchet before the game [Tuesday]. We both talked about when you don’t practice, you can see it happening with your team. But if they’re tired, that’s no good, either. There’s a balance there.’’