Blackhawks defeat Panthers, end four-game losing streak

CHICAGO -- Patrick Kane had two assists, and the Chicago Blackhawks ended their four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at United Center on Tuesday.

Kevin Lankinen made 33 saves for the Blackhawks (15-13-5), who won for the first time in five games against the Panthers this season (1-3-1).
"We needed the win," Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. "We needed something good to happen to us. We probably deserved a bit better on the [road] trip (1-5-0), but that doesn't get you anywhere.
"We've got to earn some momentum, and I think we've done that, and it's up to us to do something with it."
Noel Acciari had two assists, and Chris Driedger made 29 saves for the Panthers (20-8-4), who played without center Aleksander Barkov because of a lower-body injury.
The teams play here again Thursday.
"You lose a key guy, but it's a good test on the whole group there," Florida coach Joel Quenneville said. "But the impact he has on the team, it was noticeable there. We started to get our way as the game progressed, more so later in the third, but it was a tough, tough start."

Dominik Kubalik gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead when he scored from the hash marks of the left face-off circle after a pass from Brandon Hagel at 6:24 of the first period.
Pius Suter made it 2-0 at 18:30 on a redirection of Nikita Zadorov's shot from the point.
Kane passed from the right face-off circle to the back post for Carl Soderberg, who made it 3-0 on the power play at 4:22 of the second period.
"Big win for the team [after] obviously losing four in a row, so [it's] nice to get rid of that streak," Kane said. "I thought we've been playing all right the last few games."
Anton Stralman cut it to 3-1 at 8:53 after Acciari made a backhand pass between the legs of Blackhawks defenseman Ian Mitchell across the slot.
"I think we just had a bit of a slow start and kind of dug ourselves a bit of a hole," Acciari said. "But I liked our end of the second and most of the third. We didn't give up. We played until the buzzer, but I think we've got to figure out how to come out with a stronger start and try not to fall behind early and be battling back every game."
Lankinen, who lost his previous three starts, kept it 3-1 at 6:49 when he kicked his left leg in the air while falling down to make a save against Aaron Ekblad's shot from the bottom of the right circle.
"That was just something else from the toolbox," Lankinen said. "I was in a good state of mind, and I just wanted to do whatever it takes to win."
Alex Wennberg tapped in a rebound to make it 3-2 at 15:22 on the power play and Driedger pulled for an extra attacker.
"We did a good job of coming out strong and kind of took over the game to get it to 3-0," Kane said. "Obviously [we would] like to kill the game a little bit more, but [it's] nice to hang on against a team that's pretty good at coming back in games and put a lot of pressure on you."

NOTES: Kane moved past
Keith Tkachuk
into fourth place among United States-born players with 1,066 NHL points.
Jeremy Roenick
is third with 1,216, and
Mike Modano
leads with 1,374. … The Panthers lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season, following a 5-3 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday. … Kubalik has scored six points (two goal, four assists) during a six-game point streak. … Blackhawks forward MacKenzie Entwistle made his NHL debut and had two shots and three hits in 6:03 of ice time.