Patrick Kane scored a hat trick to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to their third straight win with a 6-3 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night at United Center.
It was Kane’s third regular-season career hat trick.
Rookies Ryan Hartman and Nick Schmaltz each had a goal and assist while Jonathan Toews continue his strong play with two assists. Michal Rozsival scored the eventual game-winning goal in the second period and Corey Crawford stopped 34 of 37 shots for the win.
The win for Chicago completed a three-game regular-season sweep of Arizona and it was the first home win since before their bye week.
Chicago has now won eight of their last nine games and sit only three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the Central Division lead. Minnesota, meanwhile, is on its bye week until Monday.
Here’s how it happened:
First Period
The Hawks wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. A 2-on-1 with Jonathan Toews and Schmaltz ended with the puck in the back of the net by Schmaltz just 37 seconds into the game. Not a bad way to spend your 21st birthday.
Jakob Chychrun blasted a shot from the left circle past Crawford’s glove-side to make it 1-1.
Marian Hossa won a puck battle against Goligoski and held him off behind the net in time to find Hartman in the lower right circle to make it 2-1 at 10:28. It was Hartman’s 15th goal of the season which gives the Hawks seven players to reach the 15-goal plateau. Chicago only had four last season.
Kane sneaked a shot into the net from the left circle on Smith’s short side to extend Chicago’s lead to 3-1.
The Coyotes responded with two quick goals — 37 seconds apart. Ryan White skated around Rozsival to knock in a rebound before Radim Vrbata skated from the blue line up behind Duncan Keith in front of the net to tap in a shot to make it 3 all.
Second Period
Rozsival made up for his mistake in the second frame with his first goal of the season. It was also the first goal for Rozsival since Feb. 4, 2016 against, you guessed it, Arizona. That goal also gave the Hawks a 4-3 before its 6-5 overtime win.
Brent Seabrook set up Kane’s second goal for a 5-3 lead. Seabrook sent a feed to Kane, who pulled up and looked to pass to Tanner Kero but decided to shoot a wrister five-hole for his 22nd goal of the season.
Third Period
The Hawks opened the final frame by killing off the remaining 2:14 on Panik’s 4-minute double minor high sticking penalty. Chicago nearly added another goal five minutes into the period when Goligoski tried to put the puck in behind the net, but he shot it right at Smith, who surprisingly made the save.
Kane sent a relatively quite United Center crowd into a frenzy with a blast from the right circle to complete his hat trick midway through the period. He now holds the team lead with 23 goals and is tied for fourth in the league with 63 points.
This is what the Hawks were expected to do against a low-level team like Arizona. The Hawks continue to badger the Coyotes and Smith, having scored at least four goals in each of last two seasons.
The Hawks are finally starting to look like the goal-scoring happy team you’ve come to expect. As Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times notes, the Hawks have picked up the pace since the All-Star break by averaging an incredible 4.1 goals per game compared to 2.8 before the break. That’s pretty good.
The win wasn’t all sunshine and roses though. Chicago lost defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson to an upper-body injury in the second period. The Swedish blue liner logged just five shifts before his exit and there will be an update Friday from the team on his status going forward.
SCH’s 3 Stars
1. Kane (3 goals)
2. Schmaltz (1 goal, 1 assist)
3. Hartman (1 goal, 1 assist)
What’s next?
The Hawks will have two days off before hosting Central Division rival St. Louis on Sunday. It’ll be the fifth and final regular-season game between the Central Division rivals. The season series is tied 2-2.