Chicago, ILL—The Blackhawks were able to score three goals early due to power play in the first period. Chicago beat Carolina 6-4 Thursday night at the United Center.
Chicago killed off all four of their penalties in the game and got some big saves around the net from goalie Kevin Lankinen to seal the win.
The Carolina Hurricanes were very fortunate to beat the Blackhawks on Tuesday, winning in a shootout.
“To me, it was the special teams that lost it for us tonight,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “If you can’t kill penalties you’re not going to win.”
Carolina started the scoring when Sebastian Aho’s shot from the point slid past back of the net. It was the Canes’ second shot of the game. Nino Niederreiter and Svechnikov both scored in the first minute of the second period to tie the score.
The Hurricanes (6-2-0), who was without goalie Petr Mrazek due to a thumb injury, had a few more misfortunes on Thursday. Defenseman Brett Pesce took a puck in the face in the first period and left the ice bleeding. Then, late in the third period, forward Martin Necas took a big hit from defenseman Calvin de Haan and banged his head.
Pesce did return to the game. Necas, who was helped off the ice, will be further evaluated, Brind’Amour said.
It was a huge night for Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane, who has some big games in his career. Kane is always very dangerous with the puck on his stick, had a goal and three assists. Combine that with a goal and two assists from Dominik Kubalik and it was more than enough offense Chicago (4-4-4) needed. Some hard work below the goal line by Kane resulted in Alex DeBrincat scoring the go-ahead goal at 12:22 of the third period. Kane grabbed a loose puck and centered it to Pius Suter, with DeBrincat sprinting in backdoor to bang in a rebound.
Kane scored at even strength early in the third period for a 4-3 lead but the Hurricanes’ Brock McGinn tied it with a shot from the low slot.
DeBrincat’s empty net goal with 13 seconds left clinched it.
“We were bad again today,” defenseman Dougie Hamilton said. “We didn’t play how we want to play, our identity.
“We were definitely sloppy. We gave up a lot of breakaways. Our power play was very bad. Our PK was very bad. It’s hard to win when you have those things. We didn’t adjust to their game and we didn’t get to our game.”
Goalie James Reimer faced 34 shots and allowed five goals. He also made some great saves but the Canes’ were too loose in the defensive zone and the Blackhawks were too quick to pucks.
