CHICAGO – No. 400 for Patrick Kane was just like so many others.
A slick move, and then one well-placed shot.
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Kane scored his 400th career goal, Kevin Lankinen made a career-high 44 saves and the Chicago Blackhawks closed out a successful February with a 7-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night.
Kane and Alex DeBrincat got loose for a 2-on-1 midway through the third period. The 32-year-old Kane kept the puck, waited for sprawled Detroit defenseman Filip Hronek to slide by him and then beat Thomas Greiss on the stick side for his team-best 11th of the season.
“I think the biggest thing is once you start reaching these types of milestones, 400 goals and 1,000 games coming up, it leaves you wanting more,” Kane said. “It's exciting to achieve them.”
Kane pumped both of his arms after becoming the 100th NHL player to reach 400 goals. The three-time Stanley Cup champion is the fourth player in franchise history to reach the milestone with the club, joining Hall of Famers Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita and longtime star Steve Larmer.
“Tonight was all about Kaner,” teammate Ryan Carpenter said. “It's nice for him to get that goal, and we all admire him for it.”
Carpenter, Pius Suter, Dominik Kubalik and DeBrincat also scored in the third as Chicago broke open a tight game against lowly Detroit. Carpenter also scored in the first, DeBrincat added three assists and Kane posted a three-point night in his 996th NHL game.
Bouncing back nicely from a 5-3 loss to the Red Wings on Saturday night, the Blackhawks closed out a 9-3-1 February with their third win in four games.
“Our team, it's coming together,” Kane said. “We have a lot of young guys that are just going to keep getting better and better.”
Evgeny Svechnikov scored for the second straight game for Detroit, which had won two in a row. Sam Gagner also scored.
The Red Wings played without captain Dylan Larkin for the second straight game because of an upper-body injury. They went 5-8-1 in February.
“It's disappointing, obviously. I think (Greiss) battled really hard for us and kind of hung him out to dry there at the end,” Gagner said.
Chicago jumped in front on Nikita Zadorov's first goal since he scored three times for Colorado in the playoffs last year. The 6-foot-6 defenseman, who was acquired in an October trade with the Avalanche, got a pass from David Kampf and beat Greiss from the high slot 11:41 into the first.
The Blackhawks then caught a break when Carpenter's shot went off Red Wings defenseman Alex Biega in front and was inadvertently kicked in by a scrambling Greiss, making it 2-0 with 2:47 left in the opening period.
The Red Wings, who put 21 shots on net in the first, got one back when Gagner redirected Jon Merrill's shot past Lankinen with 2:09 to go. It was Gagner's fourth goal in three games after he had a hat trick in Detroit's 5-2 victory against Nashville on Thursday night.
CARPENTER’S WORK
Carpenter's goal in the third period was his first career power-play goal in his 216th NHL game.
It was the highest scoring game of the season for Chicago.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Blackhawks: Open a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night.