Kane's 300th goal lone highlight in Hawks loss to Devils

There's only one shopping day before Christmas, but the New Jersey Devils were treated to a few early presents during their 4-1 victory over the visiting Blackhawks on Saturday.

The Hawks did all the gift-giving the Devils would need in the first 14 minutes with Richard Panik, Gustav Forsling, Duncan Keith, Jordan Oesterle and Patrick Sharp all playing Santa Claus.

Patrick Kane did notch his 300th career goal late in a second period dominated by the Hawks, but it was too little too late, and coach Joel Quenneville's squad goes into the Christmas break having lost two straight.

"Give them credit. They're a fast team," Quenneville told reporters. "There's not a lot of time, not a lot of space.

"You've got to manage the puck. You've got to keep yourself in the play. You've got to put it in good areas. And when you don't, you lose races, you get outmanned … and that was basically the game after one (period)."

Panik, who hasn't scored in 22 straight games, helped New Jersey get on the board by committing a ghastly defensive-zone turnover less than three minutes in. Brian Boyle unleashed a long flip shot from just inside the blue line for his 10th goal of the season.

Less than seven minutes later, a Kyle Palmieri pass attempt bounced off Gustav Forsling's skates and past Corey Crawford.

Keith and Oesterle then lost track of Pavel Zacha, and the Devils' forward slammed home a one-timer with Crawford completely out of position at 13:22.

At that point, Quenneville had seen enough and he pulled Crawford (4 saves) in favor of Anton Forsberg.

Kane made it 3-1 at 17:18 of the second, but any hope of a Hawks (17-13-5) comeback basically ended when Sharp's blind pass was picked off after he'd just entered the offensive zone. Miles Wood sprung Taylor Hall, and Hall easily beat Forsberg (21 saves) on a breakaway at 2:02 of the third period.

"It looked like that could have been a big goal for us," Kane said of his tally. "We had things going on in the second where we had chances. You get that one, you're down two and maybe the comeback's on. Unfortunate that it didn't happen that way."

Kane became the fifth player in Hawks history to record 300 goals. He finished with a game-high 7 shots on goal.

"Cool number to get to," Kane said. "Would have been nice to get it in a win obviously, but nice to get it out of the way too."

Said Quenneville: "He was dangerous tonight. Unfortunately we didn't have many guys at that level."

Cory Schneider made 39 saves - including 21 in the second period - for the first-place Devils (21-9-5).

The Hawks return to action Thursday with three games in four nights at Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

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