Collin Delia made a career-high 46 saves and Patrick Kane recorded his seventh career NHL hat trick to lead the Blackhawks to a 5-2 win over the Wild on Thursday at the United Center in Chicago.
It was the second win this season for Delia, who made 35 saves in his season debut Dec. 21 at Colorado.
Brandon Saad scored two goals and Jonathan Toews had two assists to push his NHL career assist total to 400. Erik Gustafsson and Dylan Strome also had two assists.
Zach Parise and Eric Staal scored for the Wild, who dropped their fifth straight game. Devan Dubnyk allowed three goals on 10 shots before being chased in the second period. Alex Stalock stopped eight shots in relief.
Gustafsson set up Kane’s first goal by faking a shot then feeding the puck through traffic in the slot to Kane, who scored his team-high 18th goal of the season at 4:02 of the first period.
Parise leveled at the 15-minute mark of the first just two seconds after a power play expired.
After being outshot 15-4 in the first period, Saad put the Blackhawks up 2-1 just 23 seconds in the second frame. Saad corralled a pass from Toews and skated by three Wild defenders before firing the puck into the net for his 10th goal of the season.
Kane tallied his second of the night on a one-timer from the top of the right face-off circle to chase Dubnyk at 3:53 of the middle frame.
Delia made a great stop on Jordan Greenway’s breakaway chance near the midway point to keep it a two-goal game.
Saad made it 4-1 on the power play when he blasted a shot from inside the circle with Stalock caught out of position at 12:17 of the third. It was the first time all season Chicago scored two power-play goals in one game.
Staal made it a two-goal game with 50.3 seconds left with Stalock pulled for an extra attacker.
Kane completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal with 26.9 seconds remaining in the game.
Up next
The Blackhawks head out West to face the Avalanche on Saturday in Denver.
3 Stars
- Collin Delia — 46 saves
- Patrick Kane — 3 goals
- Brandon Saad — 2 goals