 won for the fourth time in five games. Corey Crawford made 19 saves in his first start since he was pulled in the second period of an ugly 7-1 loss to New Jersey on Dec. 23.''Wasn't the prettiest game, but I thought we did what we had to do,'' coach Jeremy Colliton said.Detroit dropped to 3-18-2 in its last 23 games. Filip Zadina and Luke Glendening scored for the NHL-worst Red Wings (10-30-3), and Jimmy Howard made 23 stops.''It's obviously hard to play right now,'' Zadina said. ''We're not producing some points as a team. It's kind of disappointing, but we're trying to do our best.'' The game was tied at 2 when Boqvist skated past Detroit forward Darren Helm near the blue line and beat Howard on the glove side 8:47 into the third. It was the second goal for the rookie defenseman in his 18th NHL game.Kubalik added his 12th with 20 seconds left as the Blackhawks kicked off an important four-game homestand with their seventh win in their last 10 games. Chicago is just 10-9-3 at the United Center this season.''We have to be really good at home. We've talked about that,'' Crawford said. ''These are big points coming up. We've got to take care of home ice.'' Looking for its first road win since Dec. 14, Detroit jumped out to a 2-0 lead.With Kubalik serving a slashing penalty in the first period, Zadina beat Crawford with a wrist shot from the right circle. It was the fourth goal of the season for the 20-year-old Zadina, who was selected by the Red Wings with the No. 6 pick in the 2018 draft.Glendening then got his sixth with a well-placed redirect of Patrik Nemeth's shot with 3:07 left in the first.Chicago responded with two goals in a 45-second span in the second.''We just shoot ourselves in the foot for no reason,'' Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. ''We played stupid hockey I thought in the second.'' After Strome finished a give-and-go with Alex DeBrincat, Erik Gustafsson had a shot go off the right skate of Detroit defenseman Filip Hronek and right to Sikura, who drove the puck into the open net for the tying score at 15:52.Sikura then skated around the back of the goal and was lifted into the air by Gustafsson as the crowd of 21,493 roared its approval. The 24-year-old Sikura had a big grin as he sat on the bench after breaking through in his 44th NHL game.''I was telling the guys, I think that's something I kind of pictured, that exact scenario maybe a thousand times before bed,'' Sikura said, ''so it was kind of just instincts when it came there. It was a nice play by Gus. Happy to get that one out of the way.'' NOTES: Blackhawks G Robin Lehner is day to day with a right knee injury after he got hurt during Thursday night's 7-5 loss at Vancouver. Kevin Lankinen served as Crawford's backup after he was recalled from the minors Saturday on an emergency basis. ... Blackhawks F Zack Smith played after missing practice Saturday for a family matter. Smith and his wife, Brittany, recently welcomed their second child, a boy named Eddie Dean Smith. ... The Red Wings host the Blackhawks on March 6.UP NEXTRed Wings: Open a three-game homestand Tuesday night against Montreal.Blackhawks: Host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.---Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap---More NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Rested after a productive road trip in which they won two of three games, the Chicago Blackhawks will hope to continue rolling Sunday night as they host the struggling Detroit Red Wings to begin a four-game homestand.Hoping to channel their midseason momentum for a run at a Western Conference wild card slot, the Blackhawks are 5-2-0 in their past seven games and had won three straight before Thursday's 7-5 loss at Vancouver.Although Chicago squandered a 4-2 second-period lead against the Canucks, the Blackhawks left for home feeling good about themselves on the whole."There's a lot of positives to take," defenseman Connor Murphy said."I think just the way guys came together and played in three different time zones, a lot of travel, and seemed to string periods together and show that we can be a team to put a big winning streak together. I think we really wanted to do that (Thursday), but we know in order to be that team that we think we can be, we have to string it together at some point and we have a good opportunity going home to do that." Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane, who led all NHL players with 802 points during the 2010s, started the new decade with a flourish, scoring twice in the club's first action of 2020.Still, Kane and his teammates bemoaned their inability to make a two-goal advantage hold up for goaltender Robin Lehner, who made his fourth consecutive start."We have a lot of offense in here. We have the ability to score goals," Kane said."It's just being committed to defense and creating that way on the transition by turnovers and back-checking and transitioning the other way. I think we can be really good when we play like that. I thought we did that for the most part (Thursday)." Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton echoed that sentiment."Yeah, a lot of goals, a lot of nice plays," he said. "Just disappointed because we were in a great spot and I thought we played really well. Not only were we up, I thought we played really well. You'd like to close that game out and it didn't happen." Sunday marks the end of a two-game road trip for the Red Wings, who enter play with an NHL-low 23 points and a 3-17-2 record over their past 22 games.The Red Wings come to Chicago on the heels of Friday's 4-1 road loss to the Dallas Stars. Detroit opened the scoring on forward Dylan Larkin's 10th goal of the season at 3:47 of the first period before surrendering the next four goals.Detroit had its chances to get back in the game down the stretch, but an 0-for-5 effort on the power play doomed the Red Wings, who are 0-for-14 on the man advantage over the past four games. The Red Wings also yielded two short-handed goals to the Stars."We work too hard to try to create offense, work too hard to create offensive zone time, to give away those easy chances," Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. "We have to better at that, and our special teams have to be better." The Red Wings and Blackhawks are set to conclude the regular season series on March 6 in Detroit.--Field Level Media
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