*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
The old guard that has been aiding the Chicago Blackhawks for years just gave them another win. Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, Alex DeBrincat scored, and the Blackhawks defeated the Winnipeg Jets with a 3-1 win on Monday night in Winnipeg.
With the win, the Blackhawks close out a 3 game road trip with a 2-1-0 record, improving to 18-24-7 on the season. In addition to a two point night from Kane and the game winning goal from DeBrincat, Kirby Dach finished with a two assist night, assisting on Kane and DeBrincat's goals.
After the game, DeBrincat said that "I think their 'D' were far back in their zone and I had a lot of space. So they had to gap up, and I felt like I had the lane to shoot. I guess I put it where I wanted it. I was lucky it went in. Getting four out of six points on the road is not bad. Going home I think we can capitalize on the homestand and hopefully get a lot more wins."
The first period went by scoreless, so the first goal of the night didn't come until the 10:21 mark of the second period. That was when Kane scored his 12th goal of the season to put Chicago ahead 1-0, assisted by Dach and Jake McCabe. Mark Scheifele scored 6:17 into the 3rd period for the Jets, tying things up at 1-1.
Almost 4 minutes later, DeBrincat put the Blackhawks ahead 2-1, tallying his 30th goal of the season 9:42 into the 3rd period, assisted by Dach. With 56 seconds left and the net empty, Brandon Hagel scored the put away goal, his 15th of the season, assisted by Kane and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Getting the start in net for Chicago was Fleury, who put together a great night to get a well deserved win. Fleury turned aside 31 of the 32 shots on goal he faced from the Jets. That was good enough to rack up a .969 save percentage in the win. With the win, Fleury was able to improve his season record to 16-17-3 in 36 starts.
Chicago head coach Derek King said that "This is what Fleury does, he keeps you involved in the game, he keeps you in the game. He gives you an opportunity to win a hockey game, and we happened to put a good, solid effort in front of him, and this is the outcome."
For the Jets, they saw their modest 3 game point streak come to an end with the regulation loss at home, despite Scheifele scoring in his 4th straight game, tallying 4 goals and 3 assists in his last 4 games. The Jets record drops to 20-18-8 this season.
Getting the start for the Jets in this one was Connor Hellebuyck, who has been on a tailspin lately as he has gotten a lot of work in net. Hellebuyck stopped 21 of 23 shots he faced, still doing good, but his .913 save percentage in this game wasn't enough to top Fleury. Hellebuyck's record now drops to 16-16-7 in 39 starts this season.
Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt said "I thought Fleury made a couple of big saves, especially in the third period, but I think that we as a team needed to do a better job of getting to him. Our 'D,' we shot pucks, but we didn't really have the guys in front and we're just making easy saves for him. When he gets into a groove, he's a guy that can really steal the flow of the game."
The Jets keep their homestand going with a Wednesday night contest with the Minnesota Wild, where Hellebuyck will start again. The Blackhawks start a 6 game homestand on Thursday night as they welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to town, with Fleury likely to start.
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