Kane points streak hits 26 games, Blackhawks blank Canucks
CHICAGO (AP) Patrick Kane extended his points streak to 26 games, Corey Crawford made 30 saves for his second straight shutout, and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 on Sunday night.
Kane, the NHL's leading scorer with 46 points, had the second assist on Duncan Keith's power-play goal midway through the first.
Dennis Rasmussen, Andrew Shaw and Brandon Mashinter also scored for the Blackhawks, winners of four of five.
Kane surpassed Sidney Crosby's 25-game streak, set in 2010-11, for the longest in the league since 1992-93. The Blackhawks right wing has 16 goals and 24 assists during his run, and a point in 29 of Chicago's 31 games.
Ryan Miller had 26 saves for the Canucks.
Rasmussen made it 2-0 with 8:24 left in the third and Shaw had an empty-netter with 31 seconds remaining. With Miller back in the net, Mashinter completed the scoring with 10 seconds left with his first NHL goal.
Crawford has four shutouts this season, tied for the league lead with St . Louis' Jake Allen and Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk.
Crawford's shutout was the 16th of his career and followed a 25-save effort and 2-0 win against Winnipeg on Friday.
The Canucks opened a six-game trip on Sunday that continues to Minnesota, Philadelphia, Detroit, Florida and Tampa Bay.
Keith opened the scoring during a Chicago man advantage at 11:51 of the first. After taking Artemi Panarin's feed, Keith one-timed a wobbling shot from the left circle with Chicago's Artem Anisimov and Vancouver's Matt Bartkowski in front and screening Miller.
Crawford was especially sharp in the second period. He came up with a quick pad save on Daniel Sedin's tip-in attempt during a power play about five minutes in, then a lunging glove save on Chris Higgins' rebound midway through.
Miller matched Crawford, making tough stops late in the frame including a blocker save on Panarin's one-timer from the left circle with 5:00 left.
Midway through the third, Crawford dropped to make a pad save on Sven Baertschi's one-timer from the slot.
Rasmussen scored his second goal in four games since being recalled from Rockford of the AHL at 11:36 of the third. He tapped the puck in after Bryan Bickell's shot from the slot trickled off Miller's glove.
Crawford's shutout was preserved when an apparent goal by Henrik Sedin with 6:30 left was disallowed. Sedin fired the puck in after his brother Daniel directed the puck to him off his glove.
NOTES: The Canucks played their first game without D Dan Hamhuis, who suffered a gruesome facial fracture last Wednesday when he was hit in the mouth by a shot by the New York Rangers' Dan Boyle. ... Chicago F Marian Hossa played in his 1,200th caeer game and D Niklas Hjalmarsson in his 500th. ... Vancouver F Radim Vrbata skated in his 900th game. ... Bickell's assist on Rasmussen's assist was his first point in 12 games this season. ... According to the Blackhawks, Kane is the first defending Stanley Cup champion to have a point streak of at least 25 games since 1985-86 when Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky (39 games) and (28 games) Paul Coffey did do.
