CHICAGO — Patrick Kane and Brandon Hagel each had hat tricks Friday night, but the Chicago Blackhawks needed to fend off a late New Jersey Devils charge to escape with an 8-5 win, snapping a seven-game United Center losing streak.
Alex DeBrincat had three assists.
The Hawks avoided going winless in eight straight home games for the first time since the 2006-07 season, when they went 0-6-2 from Dec. 29, 2006, to Jan. 26. 2007.
Hagel opened the scoring 7 minutes, 34 seconds into the game with his 15th goal of the season. Ty Smith turned over the puck in the Devils’ zone on a bad pass to Jack Hughes, then Hagel snagged the puck and wristed a shot past Jon Gillies’ glove.
On the other end, however, the Hawks did little to protect Kevin Lankinen during his first game in net since Jan. 22 in Minnesota, where he took a puck to his right hand.
Lankinen faced 15 shots on goal in the first period Friday — seven of them high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick — and coughed up goals to Jack Hughes and Yegor Sharangovich.
But the Hawks charged back with three straight goals in the second.
Kane scored for the second straight game, roofing a power-play shot for a goal at the 1:34 mark of the period.
Then he struck on the power play again — the Hawks had four chances in the period — and benefited from a little skill and a little luck. Kane threaded a shot through Jonas Siegenthaler’s legs, and it deflected off Damon Severson’s stick over Gillies’ pad to make it 3-2 Hawks at the 11:24 mark of the second.
Two-and-a-half minutes later, again on the power play, Hagel took a pass from Kane and launched a rocket that measured 62 mph on the United Center video board.
But the Devils clawed back with two goals.
The first came on a heads-up play by Severson. He curled around his own net and tossed a beauty of a stretch pass to Jesper Bratt for a breakaway goal with 2:17 left in the second.
Then at 8:36 of the the third, Siegenthaler, who assisted on two earlier goals, scored his first of the season to make it 4-4.
The Hawks regained the lead with a Kirby Dach toe-drag goal, then Carpenter added to it with his second goal his last four games — after going 45 straight without one — to make it 6-4 Hawks with 5:05 left.
The Hawks almost needed it. Bratt added his second goal of the night a minute later.
But Kane and Hagel each added empty-netters to complete their hat tricks.
Hagel got into a scuffle with P.K. Subban, with the Devils taking issue with the Hawks padding the score, but Hagel waved to amp up the crowd as he skated by celebratory hats on the ice.
The Hawks had a lot of young faces in the lineup — some out of necessity. Defensemen Jake McCabe (lower back) and Calvin de Haan (right groin strain) were scratches.
Jakub Galvas and Alec Regula replaced them and were the Hawks’ starting pairing. It was Galvas’ sixth game and Regula’s third.
Lukas Reichel played in his third straight game and saw 8 1/2 minutes of action, mostly on a line with Hagel and Dominik Kubalik.
In the third period, Reichel was on the doorstep with the puck and tried to tuck it in the far corner but missed wide.
Given the fact Lankinen spent a month on the shelf — as well as coming into the game with an .889 save percentage — his struggles could have been predictable.
He settled down for a stretch in the second but gave up Bratt’s breakaway goal through the five-hole late in the period. Lankinen finished the game with 31 saves on 36 shots. Gillies had 29.
