Kane ends goal drought in Blackhawks OT win against Canadiens

CHICAGO --Philipp Kurashev scored at 2:24 of overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at United Center on Thursday.

Kurashev skated in on a breakaway, and as Mike Hoffman went to backcheck him, he knocked Sam Montembeault into the net, allowing the puck to cross the line.
After a video review determined that Hoffman caused the net to dislodge from its moorings, thus awarding Chicago the goal, the play was then looked at to determine if Kurashev was offside, but the call on the ice was confirmed.
"Well, after the first review they said it was a good goal, then they said offside," Kurashev said. "It was yes and no again. I was just hoping they're going to count it, and thank God they did at the end. I'm really happy."
Patrick Kane scored his first goal in 14 games for Chicago (14-18-5), which has won three straight after losing its previous six. Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves.
"I'm glad it went our way," Blackhawks coach Derek King said. "I've been on some weird [endings] when it goes the other way. This was good. I thought we battled, dropped our guard in the second, but battled in the third, tightened it up and didn't give them many opportunities."

Hoffman and Jeff Petry scored for Montreal (7-24-5), which was coming off a 5-1 loss at the Boston Bruins on Wednesday and is 0-3-2 since its last win on Dec. 16. Montembeault made 28 saves.
"We had a little chat after the first period, I don't think anyone was really happy with where our play was at," Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said. "We bounced back in the last two periods, we had a really good chance to win that game, just a tough bounce at the end there."
Kane tied it 2-2 at 2:21 of the third period, shooting five-hole on Montembeault from a bad angle on the power play. It was his first goal since Dec. 4.
Kane played on a line with Lukas Reichel, who was making his NHL debut.
"He was feeling good about it," King said of Kane. "I think Reichel gave him some room to do some stuff. When you're that good, like 'Kaner' is, teams are going to be hounding you and he's used to it. Nice to see a kid come in, push 'D' back, push players away from him and give him an opportunity to do his thing. I liked his game tonight."

Said Reichel, "Yeah, it was so much fun out there and I think first game, first win, that sounds pretty good. … First period was pretty good, and the second we made a couple of turnovers, let them get the momentum back. In the third we played pretty good defensively. Not a lot of chances, but the power play was good. Overall a solid game, and overall for me, too, a solid game, I would say."
Dominik Kubalik gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead at 7:42 of the first period when he took a pass at the blue line from Jonathan Toews and scored on a breakaway.
Petry scored his first of the season to tie it 1-1 at 12:41 of the second period. He collected the puck in the right circle after Artturi Lehkonen's shot caromed off the end boards and quickly shot past a diving Fleury.
"It's a big relief to finally get one after close to 30 games," Petry said. "Hopefully that kind of jump-starts things. There's still a lot of stuff that personally I need to continue to work on. Hopefully that's kind of a boost of confidence for me and helps (me) have a strong second half."
Hoffman gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 18:16 of the second with a power-play goal off a pass from Cole Caufield, whose initial one-timer was blocked by Calvin de Haan.
NOTES:The Blackhawks played without forwards Kirby Dach and Dylan Strome, who were placed in NHL COVID-19 protocol prior to the game. Defenseman Seth Jones was also in protocol. … Montembeault was starting in place of Jake Allen, who was injured in the loss to Boston and will be out at least a week. … Reichel, who was selected with the No. 17 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, had three shots in 15:55 of ice time. … Suzuki was named to the 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Game earlier Thursday.