Dylan Strome scored a tiebreaking, third-period goal Sunday for the visiting Chicago Blackhawks in a 5-3 win that snapped their two-game losing streak and quashed the Pittsburgh Penguins’ eight-game winning streak.
Strome and Patrick Kane, who had three assists, worked a back-door play, with Strome finishing it off to give Chicago its first lead, 4-3, at 1:48 of the third, just after a Blackhawks power play ran out. Jonathan Toews added an empty-net goal with 27 seconds remaining.
The Blackhawks, who erased an early two-goal deficit as well as a later one-goal hole, have won 10 straight games against the Penguins, and five in a row in Pittsburgh. Alex DeBrincat, former Penguin Chris Kunitz and Duncan Keith also scored for Chicago. Goaltender Cam Ward stopped 31 of 34 Pittsburgh shots. Patric Hornqvist, Jake Guentzel and Derick Brassard scored for the Penguins. Casey DeSmith made 26 saves. Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead at 2:43 of the first on Hornqvist’s blast from the right point that sailed over Ward’s right shoulder.
Guentzel upped it to 2-0 at 4:33 of the first when he tapped a rebound of a shot by Kris Letang under Ward’s pads.
Chicago began its first comeback at 16:23 of the first. DeBrincat tallied his eighth point in as many games when he scored on a one-timer from Kane on a back-door play.
The Blackhawks tied it 2-2 at 6:46 of the second when Kunitz - who was part of three Stanley Cup teams in Pittsburgh, including the 2009 team that was feted before the game - picked up his first goal of the season on a shot from the top of the slot that went between the skates of Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson and past DeSmith’s glove. Brassard gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead at 9:49 of the second from a sharp angle from near the right corner on a one-timer from Phil Kessel.
Keith became the second Chicago player to pick up his first goal of the season when he scored on a blast from the left point at 16:59, one second after a Blackhawks power play expired, to forge a 3-3 tie entering the third.
Meanwhile Conor Garland scored twice, and Alex Galchenyuk had a goal and two assists as the Arizona Coyotes snapped a three-game losing streak with a resounding 5-0 victory against the New York Rangers on Sunday afternoon in Glendale, Ariz.
Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in posting his first shutout of the season. His best stop came on a Chris Kreider breakaway midway through the second period. Clayton Keller and Mario Kempe also scored for the Coyotes. Arizona’s Rick Tocchet got his 100th career NHL coaching victory. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was pulled at 16:38 of the second period after allowing five goals on 32 shots. It was the second consecutive start that Lundqvist has not finished.
The Rangers lost their third in a row, all by five-goal margins. They lost 7-2 at home Wednesday to Pittsburgh before opening a three-game trip Friday with a 6-1 defeat at Colorado.
Garland opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 7:19 of the first period, tipping a shot from the point by Oliver Ekman-Larsson past Lundqvist.
Kempe made it 2-0 just two minutes later as the Coyotes forced a turnover in the Rangers’ zone, and a shot from Lawson Crouse deflected off a defenseman’s skate and right to Kempe in the high slot. Kempe put a one-timer into the upper left corner of the net. That gave Arizona its first multi-goal lead since December 22.
The Coyotes poured it on in the second period, scoring three more times to end Lundqvist’s afternoon.
Garland scored his second at 6:34. The Coyotes entered the zone on a three-on-two break, and Nick Cousins took a shot from the top of the faceoff circles that deflected off Garland, who was skating toward the front of the net, and past Lundqvist.