Blackhawks defeat Coyotes, end losing streak

GLENDALE, Ariz. --Patrick Kane, Ryan Hartman and Marian Hossa scored goals in a 5:31 span in the first period, and the Chicago Blackhawks hung on for a 4-3 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on Thursday.
"We jumped on them really quick. That was one of our best periods in a long time," said Hossa, who has 21 goals in 37 career games against the Coyotes. "The power play was good, and we had good pressure."
The win ended a three-game losing streak for Chicago, which was 2-for-4 on the power play following a 1-for-20 stretch over its past eight games.

WATCH: All Blackhawks vs. Coyotes highlights
Artemi Panarin scored his first goal in 10 games, and Duncan Keith had two assists for the Blackhawks (31-17-5), who are 14-3-4 in their past 21 games against the Coyotes and 9-1-2 in their past 12 in Arizona.
"It's certainly a stop-the-bleeding thing knowing that three games in a row we didn't get points in that situation," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "It's almost like, 'OK, let's see how we handle it,' and there were some good things at the end."
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Christian Dvorak and Brendan Perlini scored in the second period for the Coyotes (16-28-6), who lost their second straight game after winning the first three of their five-game homestand. Mike Smith made 22 saves.

"The first period was unacceptable," said Dvorak, who turned 21 on Thursday. "We learned from it and started playing our game the rest of the way, and that's what you saw."
Chicago had 14 first-period shots and made the most of two power plays to quickly take over the game.
Kane scored at 8:44, 15 seconds after Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski was penalized for high sticking, to make it 1-0. Hartman gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead on a slap shot through traffic at 9:56, and Hossa split two Coyotes on the rush before beating Smith for a power-play goal at 14:15 that made it 3-0.

"We were all over the ice, making plays and getting pucks into the right areas," Crawford said. "Then we kind of let them back in the game. We gave it to them, and you can't do that. It's a good lesson for us."
The Coyotes rallied in the second period with the help of three delay of game penalties against the Blackhawks; Artem Anisimov (00:19), Niklas Hjalmarsson (2:49) and Brian Campbell (16:26) each was called for playing the puck over the glass from the Chicago zone.
"Three times in a row, that's almost like a record," Hossa said.
Ekman-Larsson scored his 10th goal off a Radim Vrbata pass during a 5-on-3 advantage at 1:36. Seven of Ekman-Larsson's 10 goals this season have come on the power play.
Panarin made it 4-1 at 5:24 on a one-timer set up by Kane that deflected off the stick of Arizona's Ryan White.
Dvorak deflected a Shane Doan shot past Crawford at 14:21 to make it 4-2, and then he set up Perlini 1:27 later to pull Arizona to within 4-3.

Goal of the game

Kane didn't have a lot to shoot at from the top of the right faceoff circle, but his wrist shot beat Smith to the short side, hit the crossbar, and went in to get Chicago's big first period started.

Save of the game

Smith got his left arm on Hossa's shot on a breakaway 5:43 into the game before covering the puck with his glove.

Unsung performance of the game

Doan had a season-high eight hits in 15:04.

Highlight of the game

Hossa took a Panarin pass with speed, split two Coyotes, lifted Goligoski's stick, and beat Smith with a pretty move.

They said

"Great power play tonight. Great shot by Kane. Good speed in the middle. We did some good things in the zone, good entries. Nice to get that going, and it helped us get off to a great start in the game." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville
"We put him in a hard position and asked him to play some pretty important minutes (as a rookie). His faceoffs have improved and so has his confidence knowing he can get out there against anybody and do the job."-- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett on Christian Dvorak

Need to know

In the second period, Smith made his 8,056th save with the Coyotes to pass Bob Essensa for most in franchise history.

What's next

Blackhawks: At the Dallas Stars on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NHLN, F-SW, WGN, NHL.TV)
Coyotes: At the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, FS-A, NHL.TV)