The Carolina Hurricanes built an early lead and held on for a 4-3 victory against the host Blackhawks on Thursday night in the first game after a Chicago coaching change.
Andrei Svechnikov, Jaccob Slavin, Phillip Di Giuseppe and Calvin de Haan scored to give Carolina a 4-0 lead. Di Giuseppe was in his first game since a recall this week from the American Hockey League.
It was a rough beginning for new Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton, who at age 33 became the youngest head coach in the NHL following the firing of Joel Quenneville earlier this week. The turbulent stretch continued early in the game for the Blackhawks.
The Hurricanes, who snapped a five-game winless streak, were up by four goals early in the second period. The victory ended a 1-3-0 road trip.
Lucas Wallmark had assists on the first two Carolina goals.
Hurricanes goalie Scott Darling made 35 saves against his former team. It was his first victory of the season in his third outing after he began the year on injured reserve.
Patrick Kane, David Kampf and Nick Schmaltz scored for the Blackhawks, who pressed hard to complete the comeback.
The Blackhawks opted to go with goalie Corey Crawford instead of former longtime Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward, who is in his first season with Chicago. Crawford stopped 30 of 34 shots.
De Haan's first goal of the season -- and first with the Hurricanes -- came just 80 seconds into the second period for a 4-0 lead.
Kane's 12th goal of the season put the Blackhawks on the scoreboard 4:34 into the middle period. It came on an odd-man rush when the Carolina defense couldn't recover in time.
Kampf scored shortly after the midway mark of the second period.
The Hurricanes had only a total of 18 shots across the final two periods after posting 16 in the opening period. Svechnikov opened the scoring 4:46 into the game, and Slavin and Di Giuseppe added first-period goals.
--Field Level Media
Carolina | Chicago | |
Lucas Wallmark 2 | Points | Patrick Kane 2 |
Calvin de Haan 1 | Goals | Patrick Kane 1 |
Lucas Wallmark 2 | Assists | Patrick Kane 1 |
Jaccob Slavin 1 | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Scott Darling .921 | Save Percentage | Corey Crawford .882 |
Scott Darling 35 | Saves | Corey Crawford 30 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Carolina | 34 | 4 | 1-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 22 |
Chicago | 38 | 3 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 4 | 23 |