The sweep of the NHL schedule from Wednesday starts in Chicago where the Blackhawks finished a home-and-home sweep of the Pittsburgh with a 3-1 win.
Rookie Artemi Panarin scored twice in both games and scored the game-winner in each win.
“We knew he was a special player right from the outset,” Patrick Kane said. “Couple [of] big games by him [and] a couple huge goals. I’m sure you’ll see that more as his career goes on [with] the Blackhawks, and he’ll get even more accommodated here in the United States and everything like that. He’ll become a better player. Sky’s the limit for that kid.”
Teuvo Teravainen scored the third goal for the Hawks in an empty net.
Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss on 34 saves.
“He’s (Panarin) got a good shot, a good release,” Fleury said. “He shoots hard, so he’s got a good one-timer. The first one, I didn’t see it. The second one, it was a scramble in front and he came in, took a quick [shot] between a guy’s legs, and I wish I would’ve stopped it, you know?”
Evgeni Malkin was the lone goal scorer for the Pens.
The Hawks defense and the Pens’ inability to generate much offense led to Scott Darling getting the win on just 17 saves.
In Vancouver, the Canucks got a late marker from Bo Horvat who beat former teammate Eddie Lack for a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I didn’t think it was ever going to go in for me,” Horvat said. “He (Lack) stoned me on a couple of breakaways and a couple of chances.”
Jordan Staal and John-Michael Liles scored for the Canes.
Horvat’s second goal of the game came at 18:54 of the third period to deflate Lack.
“I wanted it. Obviously when I come back like this I wanted it, and it’s really tough losing it with a minute to go,” Lack said.
Sven Baertschi also scored for the Canucks.
In Denver, the Colorado Avalanche also survived off late-game heroics when Gabriel Landeskog scored with 16 seconds left in overtime and Nathan MacKinnon, who forced the extra session with a late goal in regulation to defeat the St Louis Blues, 4-3.
Jake Allen took the loss on 29 saves.
“I don’t know if [Allen] was looking back door,” MacKinnon said. “I’ll take that. Soderberg was in front and I wanted to create some havoc. I didn’t expect it to go in, I just wanted to create a battle in front. It was a lucky goal for sure, but that’s how goals are scored today in the NHL.”
The resurgent Avs are now just two points back of the second wild card seed in the western conference.
“It’s going to be fun,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “Two points behind these guys … when you look 10-15 games ago, we were 10 points behind. It’s pretty good what our guys have been doing lately.”
The Blues are going in the opposite direction of late and are 0-2-2 in their last four.
“There was a lot of good play again, but it’s not being rewarded with goals,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We’re not closing off games. We’re going through that phase where we’ve got to show more composure and close off games. They had a speed advantage (in overtime) and we had our chances too. You’re going to get chances on both sides.”
Semyon Varlamov picked up the win with 35 saves on the night.
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