Gritty Blackhawks beat Panthers 3-0 for 2nd straight win

One game at a time.

Next period. Next shift. Next five seconds.

Those are the mantras that coach Jeremy Colliton lives by, so it should come as no surprise that he isn't paying much attention to the Blackhawks' upcoming schedule.

What was surprising was Colliton's witty one-liner Thursday morning when asked about facing Nashville, Columbus and Dallas seven times in the next three weeks.

"No, we don't look too far ahead," he said. "You look too far ahead, you get hit by a bus."

Now, that was some impressive foreshadowing because hours later that's exactly how Florida's MacKenzie Weeger and Patric Hornqivst must have felt during the Hawks' 3-0 victory at the United Center.

Weeger, who took exception to Ryan Carpenter's hit on Eetu Luostarinen, ended up getting absolutely pummeled by Carpenter during a fight at 6:28 of the second period. As impressive as Carpenter was, it was nothing compared to Hornqvist getting leveled by the 6-foot-6, 235-pound Nikita Zadorov at 4:15 of the third.

Hornqvist immediately signaled to the bench for help, then left the game and did not return.

This is the kind of grit and pushback the Hawks (16-13-5, 37 points) must show down the stretch as they try to stave off the Blue Jackets (13-13-8, 34 points), Predators (16-17-1, 33 points) and Stars (11-11-8, 30 points) for the final playoff spot in the Central Division. Seven of the Hawks' next nine games are against those teams.

"We want to play that way and be hard to play against between the whistles," Colliton said. "We don't want to be taking extra penalties, but certainly you want other teams to pay the price."

Kevin Lankinen was the game's true star, though, as the rookie goalie recorded his second shutout by making 41 saves. His most impressive came during a three-on-zero rush in the second period.

"He's been working hard, and hopefully this is a real confidence builder," Colliton said.

Patrick Kane opened the scoring at 1:05 of the second period by pouncing on a loose puck and chipping it over Sergei Bobrovsky, who was involved in a massive pileup in front of the net. Pius Suter made it 2-0 at 3:34 by tapping in a rebound of an Alex DeBrincat shot. Kane (13G, 33A) also registered an assist on Suter's 10th goal of the season.

Brandon Hagel added an empty netter with 1:24 remaining.

As for Carpenter, whose only other NHL fight came against Minnesota's Matt Dumba in 2018, he seemed caught off-guard by Weeger and got pinned against the boards. After taking a couple of seconds to get his gloves off, Carpenter proceeded to unleash five or six crunching jabs to Weeger's head.

"He's a big, strong guy and tough," said Connor Murphy, who had eight of the Hawks' 22 blocked shots. "That's fun to see, especially on home ice. I mean a lot of times that gets the building going (if) you've got some fans in."

Zadorov's hit on Hornqvist was also a monster.

"I mean, two guys that are warriors," Murphy said. "They play tough."

These were two huge wins for the Hawks over the Panthers, who fell to 20-9-4. Now Colliton's crew can focus on a two-game set with the Predators on Saturday and Sunday.

"Lot of good things there and something to build on in closing out a game," Colliton said. "(We got) a big two points and understand there's a lot of areas we can be better in as well."