In Chicago, the Blackhawks finally won a game on Friday. The Hawks ended an eight -game losing skid with a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Five different skaters scored for Chicago who had a 4-0 lead in the middle frame before the Blue Jackets broke through for a goal.
Patrick Kane scored the first goal of the game in the opening period for a 1-0 lead to Chicago, and Jonathan Toews added a late empty-net goal for the 5-2 final.
“It feels good to get a win and feel good about the team’s effort, and individual efforts across the board, as well, before we go into break,” Kane said. “So, definitely [a] feeling that hopefully we can get more of in the second half of the season.
“It’s always nice to produce. I felt like even after the last game (a 4-2 loss against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday), you start feeling good that hopefully things are coming and probably could’ve had a few more tonight as well.”
Alex Stalock, made 27 saves in the win, it was his first game back in the crease from concussion recovery.
“Good first period by our group, got to get into it, get back up to speed,” Stalock said. “They had some looks, but I thought we played a great game, we played fast. They got some power-play chances, but I think you could ask the group, they’d say we loved the way we competed tonight.
“We made plays; it was fun hockey to watch from my end and it was good to see guys sticking up for each other. You get in ruts like this and it’s hard in any sport, in anything in life. We found a way tonight. We had some tough practices to try and battle our way out of it. Tonight was good.”
Max Domi h extended the Hawks lead to 2-0 in the first period.
Columbus dropped to 10-21-2.
In the middle frame, the Blackhawks kept the pressure on the Columbus with tow additional goals scored early in the frame.
Andreas Athanasiou and Taylor Raddysh scored in the first three and half minutes of the period for a 4-0 lead.
Chicago moved to 11-15-1.
“We definitely needed it,” Toews said. “It’s nice to see pucks go in and hard work being rewarded a little bit. There’s no replacing finding that success in games like that, when things have been going the way they’ve been going. It feels good as a group.”
Kirill Marchenko‘ finally broke through for Columbus to make it 4-1 on power play goal at 13:48 of the second.
“Way too late, right?” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “Actually, the first 4-5 minutes we were fine. Then they scored one, and we gifted a couple of goals right away. And then we chased it until about the 10-minute mark of the second. Then we started to play, but it’s too late.”
The Blue Jackets’ Marcus Bjork. scored at 3:21 of the third to get them within 4-2.
Daniil Tarasov made 16 saves through the early minutes of the second period, he yielded four goals.
Joonas Korpisalo made 16 saves in a mop up role through the rest of the match.
“It’s never easy, especially when you get called into the game,” said Korpisalo. “It means that things are not going our way. I just tried to make a difference out there.”
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