>>Blackhawks Get By Sabres in Shootout
Patrick Kane collected two assists and scored during Chicago's perfect shootout, leading the Blackhawks to a 5-4 victory over the slumping Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
Chicago (28-30-9) had dropped four of five, including two of three on its West Coast trip. It is clinging to the very fringe of the race for the Western Conference's final wild card.
While the Blackhawks have struggled for much of the year, Kane has been a force. With his 27th multipoint game of the season, the dynamic winger passed Steve Larmer for fourth on the franchise's career points list with 924.
Artem Anisimov scored twice for Chicago, and Corey Crawford made 35 saves. Duncan Keith and Brendan Perlini also scored.
Jonathan Toews converted Chicago's first shootout opportunity with a backhand. After Jack Eichel scored for Buffalo and Kane beat Carter Hutton low on the glove side, Crawford stuffed Sam Reinhart before Alex DeBrincat closed out the win by flipping a backhand into the net.
Buffalo dropped to 0-6-3 in Chicago since its last road win against the Blackhawks on Jan. 10, 2007, five months before Kane was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
Zach Bogosian had a beautiful short-handed goal in the second period for Buffalo (30-28-9), which lost for the fifth time in six games. Vladimir Sobotka, Brandon Montour and Kyle Okposo also scored.
The Sabres were ahead 3-2 in the third when Anisimov banged a shot off the crossbar, kept skating and slammed it home for the tying score 4:48 into the period.
After Okposo finished a 2-on-1 break, scoring off a great pass by Evan Rodrigues, Chicago tied it once again. Perlini jumped on a deflected puck and beat Hutton low on the stick side for his eighth of the season at 7:57 - just 37 seconds after Okposo's 11th goal.
Blackhawks: Visit the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
>>Blues Blank Kings
Brayden Schenn had two assists to set up goals by Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly as the St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-0 on Thursday night.
Schenn has a goal and three assists in two games since returning from injury. The Blues went 2-3-1 without Schenn, but won back-to-back games against Anaheim and Los Angeles since his return.
Jonathan Quick made 28 saves for the Kings, who have lost 12 of their past 13 games.
The Blues took a 1-0 lead 25 seconds into the second period when Tarasenko scored his 28th goal. Schenn helped the Blues break out on the rush and Tarasenko fired a wrist shot from the far edge of the left circle into the top right corner.
The Schenn, O'Reilly and Tarasenko line has combined for 21 goals and 35 assists in the past 13 games. Schenn has three goals and 14 assists in that span.
Tyler Bozak put the Blues up 2-0 with 1:18 left in the second.
O'Reilly made it 3-0 by tipping in Schenn's pass with 1.1 seconds remaining in the period, providing another example of the chemistry the trio is developing.
Ivan Barbashev capped the scoring at 8:13 of the third period on another odd-man rush.
The Blues are at San Jose on Saturday.
