Kane has hat trick; Blackhawks beat Pens

Associated Press

Chicago

Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks pushed aside the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Kane had his second hat trick in three games, Scott Darling made 36 saves and the Blackhawks beat the Penguins 4-1 on Wednesday night for their fifth straight victory and 10th in 11 games.

Richard Panik also scored to help Chicago pull within three points of first-place Minnesota in the Central Division and Western Conference. Kane, last season’s MVP, has a team-leading 27 goals — scoring 12 times and adding seven assists in his last 11 games.

Kane said he was pumped up for first meeting this season between the last two Stanley Cup winners.

“It felt like a playoff game out there,” Kane said. “It’s a team we don’t really see a lot. “We knew they’re coming off a back-to-back game, but they still played hard tonight. A tough team to play against.”

It’s tougher to play against the Blackhawks right now, especially with Kane at top speed.

“He’s made some great shots,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “He’s a threat to shoot and he’s a threat to make a play, so I think you’ve got to respect the other option which is not easy on goalies.”

Scott Wilson scored for Pittsburgh and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots for Pittsburgh in his first start in two weeks.

Despite the second straight loss, coach Mike Sullivan wasn’t upset with his team’s effort, just a couple of breakdowns the Blackhawks jumped on.

“I thought we competed hard,” Sullivan said. “I think we can play a little bit smarter in a couple of the areas where we gave up a couple of odd man rushes, but what I really liked is I thought we had a heightened intensity.”

Chicago center Artem Anisimov left the game in the second period with a lower-body injury.

Kane opened the scoring at 8:49 of the second.

Wilson tied it at 1 with 3 minutes left in the second on a rising backhander from the right circle that slipped over Darling’s glove.

Panik put Chicago back in front 2-1 with 24 seconds left in the period with 17th goal. He made a power move down the slot around Chris Kunitz and beat Fleury high on the glove side. Darling was at his best in the third to preserve the lead. Kane made it 3-1 on a wrist shot from the right circle with 3:08 remaining. He completed his fourth career regular-season hat trick with an empty-netter with 40.7 seconds remaining.