The New York Rangers exploded for five third period goals on Wednesday night, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 6-3 at the United Center.
Dominik Kubalik scored a pair of goals for the Blackhawks, reaching 25 tallies on the season, and Drake Caggiula scored his seventh of the season, but it wasn’t enough as the Blackhawks lost for the seventh time in their last eight games.
Pavel Buchnevich scored the go-ahead goal for the Rangers early in the third period, and Ryan Strome, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad all added tallies of their own to help the Rangers in their quest to get back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
It was a rough night for Robin Lehner in the net for the Blackhawks, as he gave up six goals on 41 shots on goal.
After Filip Chytil scored early in the first period to give the Rangers the lead, the Blackhawks kept firing away at Igor Shesterkin before finally breaking through early in the second period. Duncan Keith notched his 500th career assist as he hit a perfect slap pass across the ice to Kubalik, who hammered home a shot to tie up the game at 1-1.
The game remained tied until the third period, when Buchnevich and Strome scored two goals in 90 seconds to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead. Kubalik scored again six minutes into the frame to trim the New York lead to a goal, but the Rangers would score three more times before the end of the game to give themselves the blowout victory.
The Blackhawks will be back in action on Friday night when they battle the Nashville Predators at the United Center.
