Patrick Kane was terrific, and Corey Crawford had another solid performance for the Blackhawks.
Oh, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the World Series.
“Sure is a good day for the city of Chicago,” Blackhawks forward Tyler Motte said.
Indeed.
Kane had a goal and two assists, and the Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames 5-1 on Tuesday night for their third straight win. Then there was another loud cheer in the nearly empty United Center as fans in the private boxes and bars celebrated the final out of the Cubs’ 9-3 victory in Cleveland.
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The Blackhawks know a little something about success, winning the Stanley Cup three times since 2010, and they seem to be enjoying the Cubs’ run. Moments after the Blackhawks’ victory, coach Joel Quenneville was already looking forward to Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
“It’s going to be a fun day for Chicago tomorrow,” he said. “Biggest game maybe in the whole history of Chicago sports.”
Kane scored his third of the season on a dazzling play in the first, and then set up Artem Anisimov’s tiebreaking power-play goal at 7:44 of the third. Anisimov extended his career-best point streak to eight games with his team-best seventh goal of the season.
With Sam Bennett in the penalty box for tripping, Kane made a perfect pass to Anisimov in front for the redirect. Motte added his third of the season on an impressive rush, making it 3-1 at 12:44, and Kane assisted on Artemi Panarin’s sliding empty-netter with 3:01 left.
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“For us, it’s probably as ugly a 5-1 win is gonna get for our team,” Kane said. “Still can be better.”
Crawford finished with 33 saves after posting his first shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.
“I’m feeling better and better every game, feeling quicker out there,” Crawford said.
Michael Frolik scored a short-handed goal for Calgary, which beat Chicago 3-2 on Kris Versteeg’s goal in the seventh round of a shootout on Oct. 24. Brian Elliott finished with 17 stops in the opener of a four-game road trip.
“I think those first two were two of the best periods we played this year,” Frolik said. “It’s just that second goal kind of, they get the momentum and we opened the game and they finished us.”
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The crowd of 21,166 seemed to go back and forth from the action in Cleveland to the Blackhawks’ fourth win in five games. About 20 minutes before the puck dropped, there was a roar in the concourse when Kris Bryant homered to give the Cubs an early lead.
There were more cheers and high-fives with about 4:15 left in the first, celebrating Addison Russell’s grand slam.
Then Kane gave the crowd something to cheer about on the ice. The reigning NHL MVP skated around Calgary defenceman TJ Brodie, and then away from Deryk Engelland and Mikael Backlund before beating Elliott low on the glove side for a 1-0 lead at 18:58.
“It was a big turn of events after one, and we got better as the game progressed,” Quenneville said.
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Chicago had a chance to add to its advantage when Calgary was whistled for too many men on the ice in the second, but Backlund made a great pass to Frolik for a tying tap-in goal at 7:06.
It was still tied before the Blackhawks scored four times in the third, helped by another solid performance by Anisimov. The Russian centre, off to a fast start, also got an assist on Niklas Hjalmarsson’s second of the season at 18:16.
“We were playing a great game. We really were,” Calgary defenceman Mark Giordano said. “We had control. We did a lot of good things, then it seemed like the last 10 minutes it all fell apart.”
NOTES: Blackhawks D Gustav Forsling returned to the lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury. D Michal Kempny was among the scratches after playing in each of the previous two games. … Chicago killed each of Calgary’s four power-play opportunities. It has killed nine in a row overall after an awful start to the season. … The Flames scratched C Freddie Hamilton and Ds Nicklas Grossman and Brett Kulak.
UP NEXT
Flames: Visit San Jose on Thursday night.
Blackhawks: Host Colorado on Thursday night.