Finally!
The Chicago Blackhawks kept the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins close through two periods of play and broke the game open in the third period with three unanswered goals in a 6-3 win.
The victory snapped an eight-game skid; all eight losses were in regulation.
Six different Blackhawks skaters struck in the win including Jonathan Toews, Andreas Martinsen, Brent Seabrook, Alex DeBrincat, Marcus Kruger, and Brandon Saad.
“It’s a relief,” Toews said. “It’s definitely just a good feeling for the guys. We’ve got something to celebrate. We’ve got something to enjoy. We were reminded with an exciting reason to come to the rink in a few days and come out with the same effort. It’s something we’ve got to be aware of and build off of in the next one.”
Chicago improved to 10-18-5.
“It’s always good,” Kruger said of ending the losing streak. “We needed a win badly, and I think we battled hard today, so it was good to get the win.”
Corey Crawford made 40 saves to get the win.
Bryan Rust accounted for all of the Pens’ goals with a hat trick.
“I didn’t think any of us expected that [result] or wanted that,” Rust said. “We’re in a position where we can’t really have too many more of those. I think we’ve got to try to [learn] the lessons and bounce back next game.”
Pittsburgh dropped to 13-11-6.
“That’s an opportunity sitting in front of us,” Pittsburgh forward Matt Cullen said. “That’s a team that played last night in Winnipeg. To not have the fire or whatever, the jump, I don’t know that there’s a real excuse for that. We had plenty of time to recover. It’s a frustrating one to let go.
[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Casey DeSmith made 23 saves in the loss.
“We’re trying to build some traction here, they’ve played a lot of good hockey, we’ve played a lot of good hockey over the last three or four weeks and we’re trying to string some wins together and some points together and build some traction and momentum. When you have a night like tonight it sets you back. It’s a missed opportunity from our standpoint. We just didn’t play well enough to get the result,” Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said.
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