In Chicago, Alex DeBrincat scored in extra time on Sunday night to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 win over visiting Nashville Predators.
Kevin Lankinen made 20 saves to earn the Chicago win.
Alexandre Carrier scored the lone Predators goal in the middle frame to tie the match, 1-1.
DeBrincat scored at with just 37 seconds gone in the extra session.
The Predators dropped to 6-6-0.
“I thought Chicago played well, which we knew was going to happen,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “We found a way to get a point. We certainly would have liked to have gotten two points out of it, for sure. But really proud of the guys’ effort, sticking to it, battling through. Tough travel. Long road trip. You want to be able to dig in. I thought we did that tonight.”
Derek King won his debut as the new Chicago head coach; DeBrincat retrieved the game-winning puck fo0r King.
“It was just nice; it was a nice gesture,” King said. “I made it clear this isn’t about me. I love the fact that it’s your first game, you get a win. Obviously, you’re pumped about it. But this is not about me. This is about those guys. I told them, ‘You guys should be proud of each other because you stuck together and fought through it. And you got a win out of it.'”
Patrick Kane reached 1,100 NHL points with an assist on the game-winner.
“As players, you always feel like you could have done more to make that situation not happen,” Kane said of Colliton’s firing. “But came in today and I thought (assistant) Marc Crawford and ‘Kinger’ did a good job of getting the message across that we wanted to play free, we wanted to play on our instincts and also play with a lot of energy, which I thought we did tonight. But it’s definitely always I guess sad when something like that happens.”
Brandon Hagel had given the Hawks a 1-0 lead earlier in the second period.
Chicago improved to 2-9-2.
“It’s fun to win games,” DeBrincat said. “It’s been tough this first month of the season, but the guys battled hard today, got the win. That’s what matters right now, getting wins and having fun. Good for ‘Kinger’ to get his first win, and [I] wanted to make sure he got that [puck].
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction. We did a good job today of playing a bit more free. With everything that happened yesterday, it’s a little bit easier to turn the page and start fresh.”
Juuse Saros made 30 saves in the Nashville loss.
“It comes to structure and details,” Saros said. “I think that we have shown that even if there’s been chaotic situations this year in games we’ve been able to stick together. I think we’ve handled those very well so far.”
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