Kochetkov, Hurricanes blank Blackhawks

CHICAGO --Pyotr Kochetkov made 27 saves for his first NHL shutout, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 at United Center on Monday.

Kochetkov was making his second start this season and fourth in the NHL.
"Pyotr made a lot of great saves tonight," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "He really kept us, I don't want to say in the game. We didn't have to panic. A real huge performance by him. He was dialed in. They had a lot of good looks. You can kind of tell with a goalie, he was already there, even with a couple of backdoor plays. He was solid. You've got to give him a lot of credit. I don't think we were great after the first little while, but we were good enough, and he was great."
Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook each had a goal and an assist, and Brent Burns had two assists for the Hurricanes (10-5-1), who had lost three of four.
Petr Mrazek made 29 saves for the Blackhawks (6-6-3).
"It's frustrating because I thought we played OK in the first, and we're getting used to a team that pressures like that," Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. "We haven't really had that lately. We have to get accustomed to that. We have 'D' playing more minutes now than maybe they're used to playing, and they're put under the gun even more against a good skating, strong team. I thought we weathered that storm pretty good in the first period and played OK."

The Blackhawks, who went 0-for-4 on the power play, were shut out for the second time in four games.
"I think we just need to maybe stick with our process and keep improving on that and not worry about the results," Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. "When they come, they come in bunches. You can't force it. I think we're making good plays and getting chances, and we're just relaxing with the puck and playing hard without it and giving each other options and things just kind of develop, but when they go in, we tend to focus a little bit too much on the fact that we're not producing and not getting the results. We've just got to stick with it. There's a lot of good there."
Martinook gave Carolina a 1-0 lead at 9:45 of the first period when he redirected Burns' shot from the right point.
Staal made it 2-0 at 16:49, receiving a return pass from Burns and scoring with a wrist shot short side over the glove of Mrazek from the right circle
"'Burnsie's' obviously a shooter, but I gave him such a bad pass that he couldn't shoot it, so he gave it back to me reluctantly," Staal said. "I got a little opening there, and obviously a seeing-eye (shot) with [Jesper Fast] doing a great job screening, and fortunate enough to get in."
Andrei Svechnikov extended the lead to 3-0 at 14:07 of the second period, scoring five-hole from the right circle after Fast knocked down a clearing attempt from Blackhawks defenseman Caleb Jones.

Svechnikov has scored 12 goals this season, which is third in the NHL behind Bo Horvat of the Vancouver Canucks (13) and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers (15).
"Actually, I shot before that and I shot five-hole," Svechnikov said. "[Maybe] I was able to get in [Mrazek's] head that I'm not going to shoot there. The puck just came out. I shot five-hole, so it was nice."
Kochetkov preserved the shutout by making eight saves in the third period.
"Oh, it's huge," Svechnikov said. "I think he's going to be a star in this league for a long time, especially for our team. Obviously, [the shutout is] nice, and it gets his confidence even bigger. He's a great goalie, for sure."