Strome's first NHL hat trick helps Blackhawks hold off Red Wings

Dylan Strome had a career-high four points, including his first NHL hat trick, for the Chicago Blackhawks in an 8-5 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Wednesday.

"It's my first hat trick since the 2017 Memorial Cup, so it had been a long time," said Strome, who came into the game with four goals. "I've felt good for the last 12 or 13 games, and once the offense starts going, you remember they signed you to a contract for a reason.
"I'm still trying to prove that."
Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist, and Seth Jones and Patrick Kane each had two assists for Chicago (16-20-7), which had lost four straight (0-2-2). Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves.
Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi each had a goal and an assist for Detroit (18-19-6), which has lost three in a row and seven of nine (2-4-3).
"We aren't a team that can trade offense for offense and win games 6-5 or 7-6," Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. "We have to take care of our own end first, and we didn't do that tonight."

Alex Nedeljkovic allowed four goals on 16 shots before being replaced at the start of the second period by Calvin Pickard, who made 18 saves.
"Getting pulled tonight wasn't on [Nedeljkovic]," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "He's had a heavy workload lately, and if our team wasn't playing with energy, I don't think it is fair to leave him out there."
Detroit carried the play early on in the first period, but Dominik Kubalik gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 10:24.
"I wasn't feeling very good about things, but the guys didn't go into a shell," Chicago coach Derek King said. "They kept plugging along, and when Detroit made mistakes, we capitalized."

Strome tapped in a backdoor pass from DeBrincat on the power play to make it 2-0 at 12:40 before beating Nedeljkovic blocker side with a wrist shot to extend the lead to 3-0 at 14:27.
Strome then got his own rebound near the crease and fed Sam Lafferty, who scored his first of the season to make it 4-0 at 19:28.
"I don't know what he ate today, but I'll bet it was something special," Kubalik said. "Everything he touched was dangerous."
The Red Wings got back into the game with three goals from their second line in the second period.
Fabbri made it 4-1 at 5:45, and Bertuzzi scored his 20th of the season 56 seconds later to make it 4-2.
"After the first period, we told our guys that we still had 40 minutes left and Chicago had just scored four goals in only 20," Blashill said. "We got back to being a good O-zone team in the second period, and you see the dividends it paid."

Pius Suter cut it to 4-3 at 19:47, beating Fleury through a screen by Bertuzzi.
"We got the late goal to cut it to one, so I thought we had a lot of momentum going into the third," DeKeyser said. "But we just made too many mistakes to capitalize on it."

Strome completed the hat trick with his second power-play goal to push the lead to 5-3 at 6:10, and DeBrincat made it 6-3 at 8:55 on a give-and-go with Jonathan Toews.
Moritz Seider scored a power-play goal to make it 6-4 at 11:05.
Dylan Larkin then cut it to 6-5 at 15:27, but Brandon Hagel made it 7-5 at 16:13 following a turnover in the defensive zone by Nick Leddy.
"[Hagel] was everywhere tonight," King said. "Everywhere the puck went, he was hunting it down and getting it to our guys."
DeBrincat shot into an empty net at 18:17 for the 8-5 final.
NOTES:The Blackhawks last scored eight goals in an 8-4 win against the Calgary Flames on Feb. 15, 2020. The Red Wings last allowed eight in an 8-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Jan. 14, 2020.