DETROIT (AP) — Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves for his first career shutout and fellow rookie Philipp Kurashev scored a pretty goal in the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night.
The Blackhawks are 4-0 against the Original Six rival Red Wings this season. They have won three straight overall and six of their last seven.
“It feels awesome, it’s just great,“ Lankinen said. “It’s one of those nights you always dream about when you’re growing up. First, you want to get your first game, you want to get your first win and you want to get your first shutout, so I think it’s nice to get that under my belt. But at the same time I’m just hungry for more and looking forward for even more games.”
Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining.
On the winner, Kurashev weaved through the Detroit defense for a power-play goal midway through the second period, putting it between Jonathan Bernier’s legs. Duncan Keith passed ahead to Kurashev for the goal, his fifth of the season.
“Dunc made a nice pass to me in the middle, and I just thought I’d try to get around the ‘D’ and it worked so well,” Kurashev said. “I made a move and I saw some space for a breakaway, so I tried to put a move and I scored.”
Added coach Jeremy Colliton: “It’s probably on a few highlight shows tonight.”
Lankinen also earned an assist on the play.
Bernier made 24 saves. Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said his goaltender made tougher saves than Lankinen.
“We can’t be satisfied with close losses, but we have to look at the process and see what we are doing good and what we can do better,” Blashill said. “That’s just the reality of it. I don’t want to be satisfied with the fact that we’ve played fairly good in the last few games but we’ve got to find ways to win.”
NO POWER
The Red Wings were scoreless on the power play (0 for 3) for the 10th straight game. “Some of it is there, but we’ve got to find a way to score 5-on-5 as well,” Luke Glendening said.
RISING ROOKIES
Kurashev is second in goals among NHL rookies with five, trailing only teammate Pius Suter’s six.
“We need those contributions, we have young guys all over our lineup,” Colliton said. “So if they’re not going, we’re going to have a tough time.”
CALLED UP
Forward Mathias Brome was recalled from the Detroit taxi squad before the game. The rookie still does not have a point in 16 games. On Tuesday, Detroit reassigned forward Givani Smith from the taxi squad to Grand Rapids, moving forward Evgeny Svechnikov from Grand Rapids to the taxi squad.
UP NEXT
Blackhawks: At Carolina on Friday and Saturday night.
Red Wings: Host Florida on Friday and Saturday night.
