NEW YORK — Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists to give him 1,200 NHL points, and the Chicago Blackhawks ended an eight-game losing streak by defeating the New York Rangers 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
Kane, who has 434 goals and 766 assists in 1,130 NHL games, is the second player in Chicago history to reach the milestone, joining Stan Mikita (1,467), and the 50th in NHL history.
“It’s nice to reach it, obviously,” Kane said. “You play a long time in the League you’re going to reach certain milestones. Yeah, it feels good and it’s nice to get it on a night like this where we get a win and you can contribute for the team, too.”
Video: CHI@NYR: Kane collects 1,200th point on Raddysh’s PPG
Max Domi had two goals and an assist, and Seth Jones and Jake McCabe had two assists each for the Blackhawks (7-12-4), who were 0-7-1 in their previous eight.
Petr Mrazek allowed one goal on 22 shots before leaving following the second period with a groin injury. Arvid Soderblom replaced him and made five saves.
Richardson said they’re hoping it will be a short-term injury for Mrazek, who missed eight games after sustaining a groin injury on Oct. 21.
“It’s not the same one, so that’s maybe a good thing,” Richardson said. “I know a lot of times with injuries when you rehab one side the other side is not as strong. Hopefully after this he can be a little bit more balanced and make it through.”
Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist, Artemi Panarin had two assists, and Jaroslav Halak made 16 saves for the Rangers (11-10-5), who have lost five of their past six games (1-4-1) and four in a row at home (0-3-1).
“It’s a results league, you need to win hockey games,” New York captain Jacob Trouba said. “It’s an emotional game. You’ve got to play with some emotion, some energy. It’s not just going to happen. You’ve got to go make it happen, and will it to happen. I think we could use a little more of that.”
Reese Johnson gave Chicago a 1-0 lead on a deflection at 2:38 of the first period.
The Rangers felt Trouba tried to give them some emotion and energy with his physical play in the second period, when he had a big hit on the Blackhawks forward. Jason Dickinson at 2:58 and fought forward Jujhar Khaira 24 seconds later.
However, New York had a power-play opportunity wiped away after Zibanejad was called for slashing at 7:34, and less than a minute later, forward Ryan Carpenter was called for hooking at 8:24.
On the ensuing 5-on-3 power play, Kane scored on a rebound to make it 2-0 at 8:37. Domi then scored on the remaining power play with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle to extend it to 3-0 at 9:37.
Chicago finished the game 3-for-4 with the man-advantage.
Video: CHI@NYR: Kane puts a rebound home for PPG in the 2nd
Later in the period, Trouba laid a massive hit on forward Andreas Athanasiou at 17:11 that caused Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews to go after him, leading to an instigator penalty and a Rangers power play.
Zibanejad cut it to 3-1 when he beat Mrazek with a one-timer from the left face-off circle at 17:51.
“[Trouba’s] trying to get the guys on board and trying to pull them, big leadership,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “He’s trying to get something out of our guys and do the best we can. That’s what leadership is all about. Sometimes it doesn’t happen in one night or two nights, but you’ve got to keep working at it. You’ve got to keep working hard and battling hard, and we’ll come out of this. We know that.”
Trouba said the Rangers did not have the necessary energy, will, fight or determination to continue the comeback at the start of the third period.
Video: CHI@NYR: Zibanejad’s PPG puts Rangers on the board
New York forward Vincent Trocheck had a shot go off the post 2:13 into the period, but shortly after, Taylor Raddysh made it 4-1 with a net-front deflection of Kane’s shot on the power play at 4:46.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” Trouba said. “I think we could use a little bit more emotion, a little bit more will in our game. It’s not easy. You’re not just out here going for a twirl. It’s a hard game and you’ve got to play it hard. “
Chris Kreider scored with Halak pulled for an extra skater at 17:15 to make it 4-2.
Domi shot into an empty net at 18:46 for the 5-2 final.
“I’m just happy for the players because we’ve deserved a little more success than we’ve had lately,” Richardson said. “Some of the downfalls are our own fault, but there’s still been a lot of good hockey played by this team that we didn’t get any results so I’m just happy they got some results tonight. Sometimes that can turn your season around “
NOTES: Richardson had to leave the game briefly in the first period after getting hit in the head by the puck. He said he received some stitches but did not have a headache or symptoms. … Rangers center Filip Chytil did not play and is day to day with a lower-body injury. … Kane is the fourth United States-born player to score 1,200 points, joining Mike Modano (1,374), Phil Housley (1,232) and Jeremy Roenick (1,216). He did it in the fewest amount of games.
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