Lankinen, Chicago clip Canes

In Chicago, the Blackhawks needed a win to keep pace with the suddenly, annoyingly so, Nashville Predators on Monday night.

What they got was Kevin Lankinen, who made 31 saves in a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

“The first period, we didn’t create much at all and they had some chances (outshot 13-5),” Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “We bent but didn’t break. I really liked the last two periods. We had a big push back right away. It’s a big goal to get the lead. We built some confidence from that and then we defended hard.”

Nashville won, 3-2, over the Dallas Stars on Monday.

Andrei Svechnikov  was the lone striker for the Canes.

“The first was our best period by far and then we didn’t build off that, didn’t continue that pace of play,” Carolina’s Brady Skjei said. “We have to come back on Thursday and get two points out of this trip.”

Dylan Strome gave Chicago a 1-0 lead early in the middle frame.

“I was looking to Janmark the whole time, but [Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce] took away the pass, so I just saw high glove and shot it,” Strome said.

Alex DeBrincat also scored and pushed the lead to 2-0.

“It seemed like we were able to pack it in and understand that every puck and battle that you’re in is a valuable one to the game and the team,” Chicgo’s Connor Murphy said. “It seemed like we showed that a little more tonight. They got their looks, but as it got to crunch time of the game later on, it seemed like guys were very desperate to help each other out in the battles.”

The Canes got one back on Svechnikov ‘s goal in the 16th minute of the middle frame.

“We gave them two right away to start the second,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We just said, ‘Here you go, here’s two goals.’ Just very, very frustrating because it’s tough in the NHL to come back when you just give teams goals. It’s one thing to make them earn them, but we just said, ‘Here you go.’ So that was frustrating.

“It just took the sails out of us a little bit from there on. It’s not like we played a poor game, we just had a couple of hiccups there that cost us.”

Alex Nedeljkovic made 14 saves in the loss.