DETROIT – Patrick Kane had a couple shots that simply could not be stopped.
Just like the Chicago Blackhawks.
Chicago extended its NHL-record season-opening points streak to 22 games Sunday when Kane scored the tying goal on a power play with 2:02 left in regulation and the Blackhawks earned an extra point when the star forward scored the only goal in a shootout of a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
“Just amazing what’s going on,” Kane said.
Corey Crawford was perfect in the shootout and finished with 32 saves to help Chicago win a ninth straight game.
“He had several big saves, particularly right after they scored to go up one,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “He kept us in there to make it a one-goal game and gave us a chance.”
The Blackhawks have earned at least a point in 28 straight games – dating to a March 25, 2012, loss in regulation to Nashville – to tie the second-longest streak in league history.
“It’s impressive,” Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard acknowledged after making 32 saves. “They’re finding different ways to do it every single night.”
It looked like Chicago’s sensational streak of success might end when Detroit’s Tomas Tatar broke a scoreless tie early in the third period and Howard stopped every puck that came his way.
Kane and Crawford had other ideas.
“We keep finding a way to keep ourselves in the game or win it at the end,” Kane said.
The Red Wings hurt their chances by getting called for delay of game twice toward the end of regulation for putting the puck out of play.
Chicago took advantage of the first of two late power plays with forward Viktor Stalberg getting more of the puck than Detroit defenseman Kyle Quincey did, pushing it to Kane to set up a one-timer that made it 1-1.
“He knew the importance of it to get us to overtime,” Quenneville said.
With a sold-out crowd on its feet for a shootout at the end of an entertaining afternoon of hockey, Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk was denied on a low attempt by Crawford’s pads on the first attempt. Jonathan Toews then went high and couldn’t get a shot past Howard’s glove.
Red Wings rookie Damien Brunner made some nifty moves next, but couldn’t keep the puck and for that, Crawford looked thankful as the two met face to face on the ice.
Kane then stole the show, slowly skating toward Howard and lifting his right skate off the ice twice before flipping a wrist shot past him to make the fans at Joe Louis Arena sigh.
On Detroit’s third attempt in the heart-pounding shootout, Henrik Zetterberg couldn’t extend the game. “I don’t think we were close to perfect, and we almost beat them anyway,” Zetterberg said.
