In Chicago, the Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night, 3-1. It was a game that meant absolutely nothing on the schedule and the two clubs played to the level of importance.
Chicago was scoreless in five power play chances, the Flyers went 0-for-4.
“Yeah, the guys battled. They worked,” Chicago coach Derek King said. “[Lankinen] played well, we did some good things. We got a little risky at times, but the fans like it. I don’t like it all the time, but I think [Patrick Kane] should’ve had about another 10 assists tonight. He was feeling it, but it was just good to get a win, especially at home.
“Finish right at home, get the fans out of their seats, give them something that, when they walk out of here and get in their cars, they’re talking about our team, about how they competed or how they won the game. That’s all we can ask for.”
Kevin Lankinen made 33 saves in the Chicago win.
“It’s been good,” Lankinen said. “Now looking back a little bit, I think the first three-quarters of the season, being able to learn from one of the best goalies to ever play the position, and now the last quarter kind of carrying the load myself, I’m happy the way I’ve been performing on a nightly basis, just playing night after night. I think my game is where I want it to be now. Obviously, you can always work on things, but I’m pretty happy with the progress we’ve been making working with (goaltending coach) Jimmy Waite this year.”
The Blackhawks moved to 27-42-11.
Kevin Hayes was the lone goal scorer for Philadelphia.
“We just didn’t play well enough,” Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. “That’s what it comes down to. There’s parts of our game where we were doing OK, but we weren’t good enough with the puck tonight against a team that transitions really well.”
Erik Gustafsson and Jonathan Toews scored in the first period to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead.
Hayes scored to cut the advantage in Hal by the end of the first period.
The Flyers dropped to 25-44-11.
“It’s tough when you go down two and have some good looks on the power play, and all of a sudden it ends up in the back of your net and down 2-0 in the first,” Hayes said. “I thought we got a lot of looks. I thought both goalies played really well tonight. It just shows that we always need to respond no matter what the score is. I thought we did that.”
Alex DeBrincat scored his 41st of the season to give Chicago a little breathing room in the third period.
Felix Sandstrom made 30 saves in the Flyers loss.
“He was great. He was outstanding,” Yeo said. “First one goes in the net, and they score one shortly after that, but he did a [heck] of a job to settle into the game, and (he) really gave us a chance. He made some huge, huge saves throughout the course of the night, especially on the penalty kill. We spent too much time on the penalty kill (5-for-5 on penalty kill). When you’re trying to mount a comeback, that makes things real tough.”
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