Ondrej Kase scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period as the Anaheim Ducks opened a four-game homestand with a 4-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night.
Brandon Montour, Daniel Sprong and Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the Ducks, who won their fifth consecutive game and improved to 7-1-2 over their past 10. Goaltender John Gibson made 25 saves.
Erik Gustafsson and Alex DeBrincat scored for the Blackhawks, who have lost five in a row and dropped to 3-9-2 under coach Jeremy Colliton after he replaced the fired Joel Quenneville. Corey Crawford stopped 28 shots. Kase broke a 2-2 tie at 4:03 of the third period, taking a long, cross-ice stretch pass from Carter Rowney to break down the right wing. Kase fired a shot over Crawford’s left shoulder from the right faceoff dot.
Silfverberg scored an empty-net goal at 18:29 to cap the victory. The Blackhawks had opportunities, hitting the post four times. Chicago’s league-worst power play went 0-for-3. After trailing 2-0 following the first period, the Blackhawks tied it at 2-2 in the second. Gustafsson got the Blackhawks on the board at 7:16 of the period. Patrick Kane drove the puck along the boards below the goal line before shovelling a pass to Duncan Keith near the top of the left faceoff circle. Keith faked a shot and passed to Gustafsson, whose one-timer from the right faceoff dot beat Gibson to the near post.
Chicago tied it at 19:32 of the second, as DeBrincat took a pass from Jonathan Toews and batted the puck just inside the left post from close range. Montour and Sprong scored 20 seconds apart early in the first period to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead.
Montour put Anaheim on top at 5:41, floating the puck toward the net from the point. The shot found the upper left corner of the net as Crawford was screened by Rickard Rakell. Sprong made it 2-0 at 6:01, taking a banked pass off the boards from Adam Henrique down the right wing.  
Sprong, playing in his first game for the Ducks after being acquired Monday in a trade with Pittsburgh, nearly reached the goal line before firing a sharp-angle shot that made its way over Crawford’s shoulder and into the far upper corner of the net. It was Sprong’s first goal in 17 games overall this season.


Meier, Thornton guide 
Sharks past Hurricanes
Timo Meier collected one goal and two assists, and Joe Thornton notched three assists as the San Jose Sharks thumped the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 on Wednesday night. Goalie Martin Jones made 39 saves for the Sharks, who have won two in a row.
San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow opened the scoring at 3:44 of the first period with a snipe that isn’t often seen from a fourth-line player. After Melker Karlsson stole the puck in the offensive zone, Kevin Labanc made a quick pass to Goodrow, who snapped a shot into the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Tomas Hertl doubled the Sharks’ lead just past the midway point of the opening frame with an easy tally set up by Lebanc. With San Jose on the power play, Labanc fired a perfect pass to Hertl at the doorstep, and he simply redirected the puck for his seventh of the season. The goal snapped Carolina’s penalty-kill run at 21 successful kills, a stretch that lasted more than seven games.
Meier’s goal at 8:42 of the second period made it a 3-0. Meier was in the slot when he deflected Radim Simek’s shot into the cage for his 14th goal of the season. 
The assist was Simek’s first NHL point. The rout was on when Joe Pavelski scored at 15:02 of the second period with a lucky goal.
Even though no teammates were in the vicinity, Pavelski sent the puck to the front of the net and Carolina’s Jordan Staal inadvertently deflected the puck into his own cage. It was Pavelski’s fifth goal in as many games and 18th of the season. Carolina’s Lucas Wallmark scored with 89 seconds left in the second period, but San Jose’s Marcus Sorensen rounded out the scoring with just over four minutes left in the game.