Wednesday's NHL: Farmington Hills' DeBrincat scores 40th goal for Hawks
Glendale, Ariz. — Alex DeBrincat (Farmington Hills) scored his 40th goal of the season with 37 seconds left in overtime, giving the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night.
Jake McCabe, Dominik Kubalik and Alex Vlasic also scored for Blackhawks, who won for the second time in 12 games after squandering a 3-1 lead in the final 10:18 of regulation.
“It feels like we’ve been battling every night, but good to come out with a win,” DeBrincat said. “We let them come back in the game a little, but it’s nice to get a win and feel good about our game.”
Barrett Hayton, Nate Smith and Anton Stralman scored for the Coyotes, who have lost eight in a row and 15 of 17. Arizona has 13 goals during its losing streak and entered the game last in the league at 2.43 goals per game.
Kevin Lankinen had 32 saves for the Blackhawks, who have not won in regulation since March 23.
“When we have the lead, we don’t realize that we don’t need to score a goal every shift we get out there,” interim coach Derek King said. “We had a 3-1 lead, sometimes you have to have a live-to-fight-another-day kind of attitude. That’s where we’re making mistakes and that’s what cost us for the season.”
DeBrincat has two 40-goal seasons in his first five, the first coming when he had 41 goals in 2018-19.
“It’s awesome,” DeBrincat said. “I’ve obviously had a lot of good players that I’ve played with and a lot of credit to them giving me a few back-door tap-ins. I don’t think you cherish it as much when it’s in your second season and then you realize how hard it is to get back.”
More games
►(At) Las Vegas 4, Washington 3 (OT): Shea Theodore scored 2:09 into overtime to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Alec Martinez, Evgenii Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson scored for the Golden Knights in regulation. Robin Lehner made 12 stops in the first period and didn’t return. Logan Thompson stopped 13 shots in the final two periods and didn’t face any in overtime.
Vegas has 89 points and is two back of Dallas for the second wild card in the Western Conference, and trails Los Angeles by three in the Pacific Division.
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored for the Capitals, while Samsonov made 26 saves.
►(At) Seattle 3, Colorado 2: Kole Lind, Jordan Eberle and Yanni Gourde all scored in the first period and the Seattle held on to beat Colorado.
Philipp Grubauer had 25 saves as Seattle won its third straight. Matty Beniers had an assist to become the first rookie this season to begin his NHL career with a point in each of his first four games.
Cale Makar and Artturi Lehkonen scored for the Avalanche, and Pavel Francouz finished with 26 saves. Colorado, assured of having the top seed in the Western Conference, has lost two straight after winning nine in a row. The Avalanche remained tied with Florida with 116 points for the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record.
►(At) Edmonton 5, Dallas 2: Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, and Edmonton won its third straight.
Evander Kane, Derek Ryan, Zach Hyman and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored for the Oilers, who are 11-0-1 in their last 12 home games. Evan Bouchard had two assists and Mike Smith stopped 34 shots.
Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz each had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who have lost three of their last four. Scott Wedgewood finished with 45 saves.