Chicago Blackhawks get much-needed win
In serious danger of dropping their third straight game and falling to .500 on the season, the Blackhawks desperately needed somebody to step up Monday night at the United Center against the red-hot Los Angeles Kings.
So Patrick Kane put on his cape by tying the game early in the third period, then pulling off a did-you-see-that pass that Teuvo Teravainen buried about eight minutes later to spark the Hawks to a come-from-behind 4-2 victory.
Kane, who has 7 goals and 9 assists on the season, extended his points streak to seven straight games in the process.
“I mean, that's what he does. He scores goals and he makes plays almost out of nowhere,” said goalie Corey Crawford, who made 33 saves, including 19 in the third period. “He finds ways to get us momentum, maybe when nothing's going on, and he makes some pretty great plays.”
Jonathan Toews and Artem Anisimov also scored for the Hawks. Anisimov's goal came short-handed with 1:33 left in the game.
The Hawks improved to 7-5-0, while Los Angeles (7-4-0) had its seven-game winning streak snapped.
Alex Martinez and Anze Kopitar scored first-period goals for the Kings, and they nursed a 2-1 lead until Kane bobbed and weaved from blue line to blue line, then ripped a shot from about 35 feet out that went past Martinez and over goalie Jonathan Quick's left shoulder. That tied things up at 2-2 at 1:22 of the third period.
The play of the game, though, came 7:40 later. That's when Kane took the puck behind the Kings' net and surprised Quick by backhanding a pass to Teravainen, who didn't miss on a shot from point-blank range.
“It's a play you see more often now where guys are going one way and you try and throw it back the other way and kind of catch the goalie looking the opposite way,” Kane said. “It was a good finish by him and a big goal at the time.”
For Teravainen, it was his third goal of the season.
“I kind of saw that he looked up at me a little bit and he saw me,” he said, “so I just tried to sneak in the backdoor there and great pass by Kaner.”
From there, Crawford continued his recent brilliance, turning away shot after shot and standing strong during a late Kings power play.
Anisimov scored his second short-handed goal of the season, taking a pass from Jonathan Toews and beating Quick on a breakaway with a nasty backhand-forehand move to seal the victory.
The Hawks are 6-1-0 at the United Center and managed to keep pace in the jam-packed Central Division.
“That's a big confidence booster for us — knowing that we can come back, we can score goals,” Kane said. “We've been struggling to score 5-on-5 and we had 3 tonight. … That's a big step for us in the right direction.
“Huge, huge win against a good team. So hopefully this gives us some confidence moving forward and we can keep trending off this.”
The Hawks were without Marian Hossa, who is out with a lower-body injury that he suffered Friday in Minnesota. Quenneville is hopeful Hossa can return Wednesday when the Hawks host the St. Louis Blues.