Kane surpasses 900 NHL points in Blackhawks win against Sabres

BUFFALO -- Patrick Kane had two goals and two assists to extend his point streak to 10 games and reach 900 NHL points in a 7-3 win for the Chicago Blackhawks against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.

Kane, who grew up in Buffalo, became the third player in Blackhawks history with at least five point streaks of 10 or more games, joining Denis Savard (11 times) and Bobby Hull (five). With 903 points (343 goals, 560 assists) in 873 games, the 30-year-old forward passed Tony Amonte for 12th place all-time among U.S.-born players.
"I was thinking before the (2019 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend and the mandatory five-day) break it would've been nice to get it (then) and not have to think about it," Kane said. "But then you come here, and you do it back at home with a lot of people here and a lot of people knowing that's the 900th. It's pretty exciting. It makes it even better."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Sabres highlights]
Drake Caggiula had a goal and two assists, Brandon Saad had two goals in his 500th NHL game, and Duncan Keith and Connor Murphy scored for Chicago (19-24-9), which won its third straight. Cam Ward made 40 saves.
Jack Eichel, Jason Pominville and Kyle Okposo scored for the Sabres (25-20-6), who have lost two in a row and are 4-9-1 in their past 14 games. It was the sixth time in their past eight games they allowed at least four goals.
"We have possession, we can't give it back to [the other team]," Eichel said. "We've got to value it and just make it a lot harder on them. I don't think we're making it hard enough on teams in their own end."

Carter Hutton allowed four goals on 22 shots through the second period before being pulled. Linus Ullmark made five saves on seven shots in relief.
Caggiula, acquired in a trade from the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 30, scored his first goal for the Blackhawks when he spun a backhand shot past Hutton at 18:38 of the first period to make it 1-0. It was Caggiula's ninth game for Chicago.
"The first period, we had 15 shots, we should've had 25 shots," Buffalo coach Phil Housley said. "We passed up way too many opportunities, and when we did get shots nobody was in front of the net.
"We talk about that zone one, zone one. In this league, if you don't want to get there, you're not going to score. You look at the five goals out of the seven, the puck's on our stick."
Kane made it 2-0 50 seconds into the second on a breakaway for his 30th goal of the season and 900th career point.
"He's been doing this for so long, just being able to play alongside him, it allows me to kind of see it at first sight," Caggiula said. "It's a pretty special thing to watch him play."
Keith extended the lead to 3-0 when he scored off his own rebound off Hutton's pad at 5:06.

Eichel hustled to negate an icing and tipped in a Rasmus Ristolainen point shot to cut it to 3-1 at 18:05. But the Blackhawks quickly restored their three-goal lead when Saad connected on a 2-on-1 at 19:39 to make it 4-1.
"I don't know if we get too excited and then think we're going to score again," Pominville said of the Sabres' propensity for giving up a goal shortly after scoring. "The next shift should just get it deep, try to go to work, keep the momentum on our end and keep going."
Pominville brought it to 4-2 with a backhand shot from his knees in front at 3:39 of the third period, and Okposo narrowed it to 4-3 with a power-play goal at 7:16.
Murphy put the Blackhawks ahead 5-3 at 11:24 with a shot from the high slot. Kane scored into an empty net at 17:13 to make it 6-3, and Saad made it 7-3 with an unassisted goal with 38 seconds left.

They said it

"I'm really happy for him. It's hard to come back and play in your hometown. Sometimes you're pressing and it doesn't always work, so I'm really happy to see the puck go in the net for him." -- Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton on forward Patrick Kane
"The learning experiences are far over now. We're 50-some-odd games into the season … mistakes are costing us points, and that's points in the standings that we can't lose." -- Sabres captain Jack Eichel

Need to know

Kane has 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) during his 10-game streak. He reached 30 goals for the fourth time in his NHL career. … Kane is fifth all-time in Blackhawks scoring behind Stan Mikita (1,467), Hull (1,153), Savard (1,096) and Steve Larmer (923). … Blackhawks defenseman Gustav Forsling had an assist in 16:25 after missing eight games with an upper-torso injury. … Pominville's goal tied him with Mike Foligno for eighth in Sabres history with 511 points. … Buffalo forward Sam Reinhart played his 300th NHL game. … The Sabres scored a power-play goal for the second time in their past 11 games (2-for-28). … The Blackhawks' streak of nine straight games with at least one power-play goal ended.

What's next

Blackhawks: At the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC)
Sabres: Host the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV)