Kase's goal helps Ducks top Blackhawks for fifth straight win

ANAHEIM -- Ondrej Kase broke a tie at 4:03 of the third period, and the Anaheim Ducks won their fifth straight game, 4-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Honda Center on Wednesday.

Daniel Sprong scored in his first game with the Ducks (15-10-5), who have won seven of eight. John Gibson made 25 saves.
"We're feeling good about ourselves," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "We're not proclaiming we're anything more than a work in progress."
WATCH: [All Blackhawks vs. Ducks highlights]
Alex DeBrincat and Erik Gustafsson scored, and Corey Crawford made 28 saves for the Blackhawks (9-15-5), who lost their fifth straight in regulation.
Kase gave the Ducks a 3-2 lead when he beat Crawford from the right face-off circle.
"We've been doing a good job managing the puck," Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg said. "Our defense has been really good at not just throwing it into areas that are crowded when they get the puck. We take our time and make sure we come together. That's the kind of speed we need. We need to create offense as a five-man unit up the ice."
The Blackhawks scored twice in the second period to tie the game 2-2. Patrick Kane passed out top to Duncan Keith, who faked a shot before passing it to Gustafsson in the right circle. He scored on a one-timer to make it 2-1 at 7:16.
DeBrincat tied it 2-2 at 19:32. He stopped a pass from Jonathan Toews with his midsection and scored on a one-timer for his 11th goal of the season.
"We are getting closer to the result we want," DeBrincat said. "We just got to find a way to win some games."

Chicago allowed the first goal for the eighth consecutive game and then another 21 seconds later to fall behind 2-0 at 6:01 of the first period.
Brandon Montour scored off a long wrist shot near the left point for a 1-0 lead at 5:41.
Sprong, acquired in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, skated down the right side and took a shot from a sharp angle below near the goal line that skidded off Crawford's upper back and hit the top of the net for a 2-0 lead. It was Sprong's second shift of the game.
"I've scored many goals like that in juniors and in the American Hockey League," Sprong said. "I saw the hole and decided to let it go."

The Ducks were outshooting the Blackhawks 12-1 when Chicago received its first power play at 13:09 of the first period. Anaheim killed two penalties in the opening period and finished with a 12-8 shot advantage.
Toews hit the left goal post at 12:13 of the third period, the fourth Blackhawks player to hit a post in the game.
"We battled through some tough bounces, so I think we earned a few good ones," Gibson said.
Silfverberg scored into an empty net with at 18:29 for the 4-2 final score.
"You have to look at the positive," Gustafsson said. "Even if you don't score, just like I said, we hit four posts. Next game, maybe it goes in and we have four goals. We've got to stay positive."

They said it

"We had a pretty good start and we're down again, so that was tough. But maybe we stopped playing a couple minutes after that, after we went down, but I thought as the first period went on we showed some life again." -- Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton
"Our first period was really good. We were playing with a lot of confidence. That comes from building off earlier games knowing we're playing really good right now. That's a big boost for the whole team. We need to keep it going." -- Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg

Need to know

Kane has seven points (one goal, six assists) in the past seven games. … DeBrincat has six points (two goals, four assists) in the past seven games. ... Ducks center Adam Henrique assisted on Sprong's goal and has six points (one goal, five assists) in a six-game point streak, one shy of his NHL career high. … Silfverberg has 99 NHL goals.

What's next

Blackhawks: At the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday (10 p.m. ET, SN360, SN1, SNE, SNO, ATTSN-RM, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)
Ducks: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday (10 p.m. ET, PRIME, FS-CR, NHL.TV)