Patrick Kane scored a hat trick for his 100th point of the season and Artemi Panarin had his second consecutive four-point game as the Chicago Blackhawks held on for a 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins on Sunday at the United Center.
The win locks up at least a top-three finish in the Central Division. The Hawks remain in third place in the Central with 99 points, just two back of second-place St. Louis (101). The Blues face the Colorado Avalanche later tonight. It was also coach Joel Quenneville’s 800th NHL career victory.
Marian Hossa, who looked poised to score his 500th NHL career goal, left in the third period after bumping into a Boston player. He left the ice and did not return.
Q on Hossa:”He seemed to be OK. We’ll know more tomorrow, but we don’t think it’s much. Hopefully he’ll be fine and ready to go on Tuesday.”
— Brian Hedger (@BrianHedger) April 3, 2016
Panarin scored and had three assists, including two on Kane’s goals. He scored twice and had two helpers in Chicago’s 5-4 overtime win Friday at Winnipeg.
Scott Darling, who made his ninth consecutive start, stopped 42 of 46 shots for his fourth win in his last five starts. Tuukka Rask allowed four goals before the game’s midway point on 22 shots, while Jonas Gustavsson gave up two more goals on 12 shots in relief.
The game opened with both teams hitting the ice running; though the early going saw little in organized zone time for either squad. Hossa had a couple of early bids for his 500th goal with no success and midway through the first period the score remained tied at zero. Artem Anisimov‘s power play gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead near the 7 minute mark for his 20th goal this season. He is now just two goals shy of tying his career-high.
The goal seemed to energize the Hawks and they had a bit more jump both offensively and defensively as the period wound down. Jonathan Toews seemed to be everywhere, including in the face of Zdeno Chara resulting in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for both. Seconds into four-on-four action, Kane stole the puck and busted loose on a breakaway for his first goal with 89 seconds left in the first for a 2-0 lead.
Anisimov orchestrated a sweet spin-o-rama pass to find Kane just 54 seconds into the second period. Moments later the onslaught continued with a pretty pass from Hossa to Toews, the Captain gave the Hawks their second goal in 66 seconds for a 4-0 lead and chased Rask from the game.
At 5:17 off a turnover at center ice, the show continued with a passing clinic by Anisimov and Kane to Panarin, who buried his 28th goal of the season for a 5-0 lead. The teams traded delay of game penalties before things continued to deteriorate for the Bruins after they were called for too many men on the ice. The Hawks went back to work on the power play which delivered chills for Hawks fans everywhere as Kane buried the puck off a beautiful pass from Panarin, giving each four points in the game, and a second career hat trick and the 100th point of the season for Kane.
Down but not out, the Bruins put two past Darling with 11 seconds left in the second period. David Pastrnak scored on a breakaway with 15.6 seconds and Patrice Bergeron added another with 4 seconds remaining.
Bergeron added his second tally 2 minutes, 39 seconds into the third period to cut the deficit in half.
The Bruins continued to be aggressive in the offensive zone, while the Hawks scrambled. Two minor penalties resulted in 4 on 4 hockey and despite some strong shots by the Hawks, no goals resulted. Minutes later Torey Krug‘s shot redirected off Brad Marchand‘s skate and past Darling to make it 6-4.
The Hawks were outshot 15-2 in the period with four minutes to play and continued to struggle to defend their slim lead against a surging Bruins team. With 2:30 to go, the Bruins sent off Gustavsson and set up shop in the Hawks zone. At the 40 second mark an empty net goal by Andrew Desjardins was disallowed on an offside call and the Hawks held off the frantic Bruins to take the victory.
Up Next: Blackhawks host Arizona on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the United Center.