Chicago Blackhawks

Blackhawks' Late Push Falls Short in Loss to Jets

Nikolaj Ehlers had a hat trick, Patrik Laine scored twice and became the fourth-youngest player in NHL history to reach 100 goals, and the Winnipeg Jets beat the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 on Thursday night.

Laine scored his 100th and 101st goals in his 178th game at the age of 20 years, 224 days. Wayne Gretzky did it the fastest in 20 years, 40 days. Jimmy Carson and Brian Bellows also accomplished the feat faster than Laine.

The Finnish forward has an NHL-leading 21 goals this season, 18 of them November.

Ehlers scored a goal in each period, with his third fired in when he went in alone on goalie Corey Crawford and beat him with a low shot at 9:45 of the third period to make it 6-3. It was his third career hat trick.

Jacob Trouba also had a goal and one assist for Winnipeg, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler each had three assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves.

Winnipeg held on after Artem Anisimov cut it to 6-5 with 2:52 left.

Marcus Kruger, John Hayden, Jan Rutta and Domink Kahun also scored for Chicago, and Crawford stopped 27 shots. The Blackhawks are 1-4-0 in their last five games.

NOTES: Jets defenseman Cameron Schilling, called up from the American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose on Wednesday, picked up the secondary assist of Ehlers' goal, the first point of his seven-game NHL career. The 30-year-old Indiana player hadn't played an NHL game since March 2015 when he was with Washington. Schilling and fellow defenceman Sami Niku were on the ice replacing injured blue-liners Dustin Byfuglien and Joe Morrow.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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