.Tanner Pearson had a goal and an assist and rookie defenseman Quinn Hughes also scored. Pearson has 17 points in the last 16 games.Patrick Kane scored twice for the Blackhawks (18-18-6), who had their three-game winning streak snapped.Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist, and Connor Murphy and David Kampf also scored for the Blackhawks, who are 5-2-0 in their last seven games.Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves. Chicago goalie Robin Lehner, making his fourth consecutive start, stopped 30 shots.Horvat put the Canucks ahead 5-4 at 8:10 of the third period. He sent a shot at the net from along the boards. Lehner kicked the puck, it hit defenseman Dennis Gilbert and careened into the net. A frustrated Lehner banged his stick on the crossbar.Kane made it 5-5 at 13:44 of the third, putting a shot between Markstrom's pads.A wild second period saw the teams combine for six goals. Chicago scored three times in just over four minutes to take a 4-2 lead, but the Canucks battled back to tie the game before the period ended.Pearson gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead at 2:48, deflecting a fluttering shot by defenseman Alex Edler for his 16th point in as many games.Kampf tied the game for Chicago at 4:15, using teammate Matthew Highmore as a screen. Kane scored on a power play at 6:25, then Toews made it a two-goal lead at 8:17 on a strange play. The Chicago captain flipped a puck along the boards that hit Hughes on the back and bounced into the net.Hughes made up for that miscue when he drew the Canucks to within one with a blast from just inside the blue line on a power play at 10:20. Pettersson tied the game again 85 second later, ripping a shot from between the face-off circles.Miller scored the game's opening goal at the 5:04 mark of the first period, just seconds after Chicago killed a too-many-men penalty. Horvat took a shot from just inside the blue line that Miller tipped past Lehner for his 15th goal of the season.Chicago tied the game just under nine minutes later. Canucks defenseman Oscar Fantenberg tried to pass from behind his own net, but the puck was tipped and took a strange bounce. Murphy pounced on the puck and beat a screened Markstrom on the short side.NOTES: The Canucks last won six consecutive games between Dec. 28, 2016, and Jan. 6, 2017. . Vancouver's Brandon Sutter skated on his own during the morning skate but missed his sixth game with an upper-body injury. . Kane scored 802 points over the last decade, the most by any NHL player.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Host Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.Canucks: Host the New York Rangers on Saturday.---More NHL: www.apnews.com/NHL and www.twitter.com/-Sports)
The rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks have won three straight games and sit four points from a playoff spot heading into Thursday's road clash against the Vancouver Canucks."We've got to keep climbing," goaltender Robin Lehner said."I think we're above .500 now for the first time in a while. (Forget) the negatives here, learn a little bit from them, but keep building on the positives because we just have to keep trying to get better and keep climbing in the standings. We want to make the playoffs. We've just got to keep learning." Winners in five of their last six, the Blackhawks are coming off a 5-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on New Year's Eve when veterans led the way and some young guns also contributed. Patrick Kane collected two goals and four points, giving him the most points in the league for the decade (802). Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome each had one goal and one assist.Even though the Blackhawks held a 4-0 lead and needed Kane's empty-net goal to seal the deal, they weren't about to downplay the result."We knew they were going to have a push. Just have to find a way to tighten up in those situations and make sure we make the simple plays to make it easy on ourselves," Kane said. "The important thing is we got the win. You can learn from certain situations when (you're) winning, which is a good thing." The Canucks are one of the league's surprise teams midway through the season, sitting third in a tight Pacific Division and riding a season-best five-game winning streak.Considering that a few weeks ago they appeared to be on their way to yet another lottery draft pick, the Canucks have shown to be on the right track. It won't be a complete surprise if Vancouver misses the playoffs, but they're certainly proving they can be in the fight to the end."Obviously, our first goal of the year is to get into the playoffs. You have to be good all year. You can't turn it on late," goalie Thatcher Demko said. "You've got to be solid throughout the season. Staying in the mix and getting back up towards the top of the Pacific (Division) is huge for us." Their last game was also a win over the Flames -- a 5-2 victory Sunday that put their improved roster depth on display. While the Canucks are being led by rising stars Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, the win featured a pair of goals from Tyler Myers, while Jake Virtanen, Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson had multi-point games."We talk about it almost every day. Simple hockey," Myers said."I think we're starting to realize more and more, one of the biggest strengths of our team is our forecheck, so when we're chipping pucks in and we have the speed that we had tonight on the puck, you can tell that the other teams have trouble breaking the pucks out. ... We just have to continue that." --Field Level Media
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