Suter's big day pushes Blackhawks past Red Wings |
It took five games for the Blackhawks to pick up their first win, but only one opponent to find their groove.
After renewing one of the oldest NHL rivalries this weekend, the Blackhawks managed to sweep the Detroit Red Wings at home in a pair of lopsided wins, including a 6-2 beatdown on Sunday. Led by Kevin Lankinen, who picked up both wins, the Blackhawks hounded Jonathan Bernier in goal for the impressive showing. Don't look now, but some of the Blackhawks' young talent is starting to step up, and Pius Suter was one of the kids who showed up to play yesterday. The 2020 Swiss League MVP has been seeing time on the Ice thus far this season but has yet to showcase his MVP skills through five games. Sunday, Suter put those skills to work, putting home a pair of first period goals for his first two NHL goals. The second came on the Power Play as the Blackhawks led Detroit 2-0 after one period. With the offense starting to play well, the pressure has been off the goaltending, which got off to an extremely rough start. However, Lankinen appears to be the favorite to take over the starting role, especially after his weekend showing against Detroit. With a rare early lead in the second period, Detroit managed to cut the deficit in half as Tyler Bertuzzi put home a power-play goal just 41 seconds into the second period. That goal didn't distract the Blackhawks, as they continue to play hard the entire game. Despite the Red Wings starting to get more chances off Lankinen, he held his ground, keeping the Blackhawks in front by one. That score held up until late in the third when Connor Murphy picked up his second goals of the season to give Chicago the 3-1 lead after two periods of play. As if a two-goal lead wasn't good enough, why not make it three with Mattias Janmark burying home his second of the season just 58 seconds into the third. Patrick Kane and Murphy were in on the assist as the Blackhawks were fully in control. Much like in the early stages of the second period, Detroit needed to play with more urgency as they couldn't afford to fall behind by much more. After picking up a power-play goal in the second, Bertuzzi doubled that up for a second power-play goal closing the deficit to 4-2 midway through the third. Unlike in the second, where it took Chicago a long time to respond from the Bertuzzi goal, Chicago needed less than a minute to strike once more, with Suter capping off a huge game with a hat trick. Alex DeBrincat and Duncan Keith added the assists. Chicago picked up an unassisted goal from Phillipp Kurashev later in the period as the Blackhawks move to 2-3-1 on the season with the 6-2 win. Without question, Suter was the player of the game, picking up not one, not two, but three goals in the game for his first three NHL goals. Murphy added one goal and one assist, with Kane picking up two more assists to give him four on the season. Lankinen stopped 25 of 27 saves in the winning effort. Chicago is back on the Ice tomorrow as they hit the road to take on Nashville.
