In Chicago, Patrick Kane provided a glimpse of what was, and what might be if the Blackhawks could make some changes that had an impact on the team.
Kane had a hat trick on Sunday to help the Hawks to a 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Robin Lehner made 23 saves for the win.
“Obviously as everyone knows, we had a tough road trip and it’s really easy to let that snowball, and I thought just coming to the rink today [I] felt a pretty good vibe,” Lehner said. “No one was down, and I thought we had a pretty good game today. I thought we played really well.”
Eric Staal picked up his 1,000th NHL point on a power play goal.
“I’m obviously proud of that, and I couldn’t have got to this number or level without a ton of help from so many people,” Staal said. “I think that’s what I reflect on in this moment. It would’ve been nice to get a win, but hopefully there’s a few more left ahead of me for the next couple years. It was nice to get that one out of the way.”
Kevin Fiala struck twice for the Wild.
“We weren’t skating and they got some early goals,” Minnesota’s Ryan Suter said. “We had some push in the second, and then [we] just weren’t able to get that fourth one in the third.”
Brandon Saad and David Kampf also scored for Chicago.
“It’s one of those games where it’s 3-3 and you just want that bounce to go your way,” Staal said. “Tonight, it didn’t.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Kaapo Kahkonen made 22 saves in the loss.
“When you’re on the road and you get to the last 10 minutes of the game and you’re tired, you’ve got to get it into at least overtime. We can’t allow that. That’s not good,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.