Mark Jankowski scored two goals, Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist, William Carrier had three assists, and Frederik Andersen made 23 saves for the Hurricanes (51-22-6), who clinched the Metropolitan Division with a 6-5 overtime victory against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
Carolina played the game without several frontline players, scratching defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Jalen Chatfield, as well as forwards Jordan Staal, Jordan Martinook, Seth Jarvis, Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov because of undisclosed injuries.
They recalled forwards Skyler Brind’Amour, Bradly Nadeau and Josiah Slavin, and defenseman Charles Alexis Legault from Chicago of the American Hockey League on Wednesday, who all played against the Blackhawks.
Anton Frondell scored two goals, Louis Crevier had two assists, and Spencer Knight made 15 saves for the Blackhawks (28-37-14), who have lost two in a row and seven of their past eight games.
Sean Walker gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead 19 seconds into the first period. He took a cross-ice feed from Nikolaj Ehlers and scored on a wrist shot while moving into the slot from the top of the right face-off circle.
Frondell tied the game at 10:48. Crevier skated down the right wall in front of the net and lost the puck when he tried to get around Carolina defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, but Frondell was in front to bury the loose puck with a wrist shot.
Stankoven’s 20th goal of the season put the Hurricanes back ahead 2-1 at 17:10. After taking a neutral zone face-off, Stankoven moved into the offensive zone, fought off Chicago defenseman Sam Rinzel, and scored with a wrist shot.
Stankoven scored his second goal of the night to give Carolina a 3-1 lead at 4:08 of the second period when he backhanded a rebound of Hall’s shot from the slot.
The Hurricanes went up 4-1 at 14:50 thanks to a deflection in front by Jankowski. Carrier made a cross-ice pass to Alexander Nikishin, who took the puck at the left point and fired a shot that Jankowski redirected over Knight’s glove.
K’Andre Miller scored after coming out of the penalty box to increase Carolina’s lead to 5-1 at 5:47 of the third period. Carrier moved the puck into the offensive zone and passed to Miller in the center of a 3-on-1 rush, who put a snap shot past Knight.
Frondell, who made his NHL debut on March 24, moved the Blackhawks to within 5-2 at 6:09 with his second goal of the game. He redirected Crevier’s shot from the right point to mark his first multigoal game.
Hall’s turnaround shot from the slot at 8:13 made it 6-2, and Jankowski scored his second of the game with a snap shot from in front at 12:51 for the 7-2 final.
