Anisimov scores twice, Blackhawks defeat Sabres in shootout

CHICAGO -- Artem Anisimov scored twice, and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 in a shootout at United Center on Thursday.

Patrick Kane had two assists to pass Steve Larmer and move into fourth place on the Blackhawks all-time points list with 924. Stan Mikita (1,467), Bobby Hull (1,153) and Denis Savard (1,096) are the top three.
"It's special," Kane said. "Larmer was a great player, probably should be in the Hall of Fame, obviously had a great career here with the Blackhawks and one of those guys who played the game the right way. To get by him is pretty special. Just keep trucking along here, hopefully rack up some more points as my career goes on. More importantly tonight, … we] got the two points to keep us in the race and get confidence from that."
***[WATCH: [All Sabres vs. Blackhawks highlights]*
Duncan Keith and Brendan Perlini also scored for the Blackhawks (28-30-9), who trail the Minnesota Wild by nine points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Corey Crawford made 35 saves.

"I thought we played really well," Crawford said. "We were keeping them to the outside. We made a couple good plays, we didn't get down after those three goals, had a lot of chances after that. It was good to see our guys come back.
"Overtime was a lot of fun to watch our guys in that one. It was a good win for us. We don't have many games left so we need the points right now, but I thought overall we played a good game."
Zach Bogosian, Vladimir Sobotka, Brandon Montour and Kyle Okposo scored for the Sabres (30-28-9), who trail the Montreal Canadiens by 10 points for the second wild card in the East. Carter Hutton made 41 saves.
Buffalo, which has lost three straight, is 2-7-2 in its past 11 games and has allowed at least four goals in eight of them.
"It's just frustrating," Hutton said. "I can't put it into words right now. It seems like Groundhog Day right now. I do my best to try and compete and it's hard not getting wins here."
Keith gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 16:01 of the first period on a backhander from the slot.
Anisimov made it 2-0 at 18:26, faking a shot glove side and scoring stick side on a breakaway off a pass from Kane.
Sobotka cut the lead to 2-1 at 3:16 of the second period, tapping in stick side from the left of the crease.

Montour tied it 2-2 at 4:39 off a wrist shot from the high slot.
Bogosian gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead with a shorthanded goal at 6:45.
Anisimov tied it 3-3 at 4:48 of the third period with his 13th goal of the season.
Okposo gave the Sabres a 4-3 lead at 7:20, scoring stick side, but Perlini tied it 4-4 at 7:57 with a snap shot from the slot.
"It's disappointing," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "These guys are working hard. When they're not getting rewarded, that's the difficult thing. That's the mental thing we're facing right now. We're going to have to just keep digging in."

They said it

"We've just got to put good performances together and we'll add it up at the end. Everyone looks so you can't help but notice. We don't do ourselves any favors if we let things like that take energy away from us. We just got to keep winning and if we do that then things have a way of sorting out." -- Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton on the wild card race
"Yeah, we played a good first period. Like I said, a couple of mistakes and they're in the back of our net. But we did a good job in the second period, staying composed and playing our game. For the most part in the third we did as well. Just seems that the breakdowns are ending up in the back of our net. [Hutton] made 41 saves tonight? That's probably too much to give up." -- Sabres forward Kyle Okposo

Need to know

Kane has 46 points (18 goals, 28 assists) in his past 25 games and points in 29 of 33. … Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games. … Chicago is 2-4-0 in its past six games and 5-6-0 in its past 11 after a seven-game winning streak. … Toews, Kane and Alex DeBrincat scored in the shootout for the Blackhawks. Jack Eichel scored for the Sabres.

What's next

Sabres: At the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ALT, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks: At the Dallas Stars on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-SW, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)