Patrick Kane’s 4 points lead Blackhawks to 7-3 win over Sabres

Patrick Kane scored four points, including his 900th career point, as the Blackhawks extended their win streak to three games with a 7-3 win over the Sabres on Friday at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

At 30 years and 74 days old, Kane is the youngest American-born player to reach the 900-point milestone.

Kane tallied two goals and two assists, Drake Caggiula had a goal and two assists and Brandon Saad also scored twice. Duncan Keith and Connor Murphy both scored, and Cam Ward made 40 saves.

Jack Eichel, Jason Pominville and Kyle Okposo found the back of the net for the Sabres, who have lost back-to-back games. Carter Hutton allowed four goals on 22 shots before being pulled for Linus Ullmark, who made five stops in relief.

Caggiula scored his first goal with the Blackhawks when he backhanded a shot past Hutton with 1:22 left in the first period.

Kane gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead just 50 seconds into the second period on a breakaway for his 900th career point.

Keith fired a shot from the left face-off dot then crashed into the net to knock in his own rebound at 5:06 of the second.

Eichel put the Sabres on the scoreboard with 2:05 let in the second period. He hustled to negate an icing call then redirected Rasmus Ristolainen’s shot from the point.

Saad chased Hutton from the game after his shot from the right circle on a 2-on-1 rush with David Kampf restored a three-goal lead with 21 seconds left in the second.

Pominville and Okposo pulled the Sabres within one in the third period.

Pominville backhanded a shot into the net from his knees. Ward then made several big stops, including a point-blank save on Jeff Skinner, before Okposo cleaned up a loose puck in front on the power play.

Keith nearly scored his second goal of the game, but against his own team. The veteran tipped a shot that bounced toward the net before Ward stopped it. Jonathan Toews took the puck from center ice into the offensive zone then passed it to Kane, who had three Sabres players converge on him to leave Murphy open for a shot from the high slot past Ullmark for a 5-3 lead.

Kane scored an empty-net goal, and Saad added his second with 38 seconds remaining.

Up next

The Blackhawks play the second half of a back-to-back Saturday, when they visit the Wild in Minnesota.

3 Stars

1. Patrick Kane (CHI) — 2 goal, 2 assists
2. Drake Caggiula (CHI) — 1 goal, 2 assists
3. Cam Ward (CHI) — 40 saves