THREE THINGS: Lank the Tank, Closing Out and Crucial Kills

The Blackhawks posted their second straight win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night to open a two-game winning streak in a crucial home stretch. Patrick Kane and Pius Suter scored in the second period, with Brandon Hagel adding an empty-netter late in the 3-0 win. Kevin Lankinen was the biggest star on the night, though, stopping all 41 stops to earn his second shutout of the season.

"It was a fun one," Lankinen said. "A lot of saves, obviously. Maybe wasn't our best game of the season, but we hang in there. Power play was good. Penalty kill was even better. Found a way to win against a good team. That was huge."
"Every two points is big... We'll take that," defenseman Connor Murphy said. "It was pretty obvious we didn't have our best and we gave up a lot of chances the first couple periods… but in the third period, we found a way and I thought we had a better third period with a lead than we've had in previous wins."

Here are three takeaways from the win:

LANK THE TANK

Lankinen backstopped his second career clean sheet on Thursday night, stopping all 41 shots against for his second highest save total of the year and 12th victory overall.
He also became the first rookie goaltender in franchise history to record a 40+ save shutout.
"Huge. To have a shutout is unbelievable. He seems to be in his grove and it was big," Murphy said. "He was really solid and really happy for him to be having such a great year."
In a night littered with highlight-reel stops, the rookie made none bigger than a pair in the second, stopping a 3-on-0 chance by Florida to get to the second intermission with a 2-0 lead.

The win wraps a two-game series against a potent Florida offense allowing just two goals on 76 shots.
"He's been really solid. Under control," Colliton said. "He's made some big saves, but he's looked comfortable in there even on routine saves. He's been working hard and hopefully this is a real confidence builder."
"It's never easy to win in this league," he said. "I'm really grateful for every chance I get to start and even more grateful for every win we're able to get."

CLOSING OUT

Following a flurry of action in the Blackhawks end late in the game in Tuesday's 3-2 win, it was a completely different story on Thursday with the home side holding a 2-0 lead and stifling their opponent in the final frame.
Chicago allowed 30 shots against through the opening two periods, but held Florida to just 11 in the third, including a stretch of 8:31 leading up to Hagel's empty-netter without allowing a single shot against.
"We want to build confidence that we've got a lead in the third, we're going to close it out. Especially at home, you want those to be automatic," Colliton said. "The way that you do it, it can build confidence in our team. You want to just snuff it out… Happy for the guys. They found a way to close this one out fairly comfortably."

CRUCIAL KILLS

The turning point in the game came late in the opening period -- one that the visitors largely controlled. The Blackhawks killed off back-to-back Florida power plays just five minutes apart to maintain a 0-0 scoreline, and then in the final seconds drew a power play to open the second period on their own man advantage.
Patrick Kane scored just over a minute into the second on that power play and Pius Suter doubled the lead just 2:29 later to take control.
"We did find a way to survive," Colliton said. "Got some saves, got some clears and that was big because all of the sudden, we jump on the power play, get a big goal and we're up 2-0. That's managing the game, finding a way."
"It's great to get those kills, it really is," Murphy said. "That's definitely a big confidence boost for us to be able to string a bunch of them together tonight and give guys confidence. That'll need to be big for us, the special teams, going down here to the end of the year."