CHICAGO — Patrick Kane said his last-minute goal came on “one of those close-your-eyes-and-shoot plays.”
John Madden called his second goal “lucky.”
Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said his team was fortunate to win after a “crazy” third period.
Well, for a lucky team, the Blackhawks sure do win a lot.
Kane scored with 43.4 seconds to play, his second goal of the game, lifting the Blackhawks to a 5-4 victory over the Nashville Predators on Sunday night and giving them the best record in the NHL.
“We’ve had some amazing games, some spectacular endings, and tonight was one of them,” Quenneville said. “It’s all about finding a way to win. You win in different ways. I don’t recall giving up a two- goal lead late, and finding a way to circumvent it was pretty impressive.”
The Blackhawks, who beat Nashville on consecutive nights to open an eight-point lead in the Central Division over the second-place Predators, trailed 2-1 entering the final period.
Chicago eventually went ahead 4-2 and let Nashville tie it late before finally winning on Kane’s team-high 15th goal.
The 21-year-old Kane scored the winner in each of Chicago’s last three games — the first time that’s happened since Murray Craven did it in 1995. Dan Ellis stopped Kane’s shot from the right circle, but Troy Brouwer got to the rebound and flipped the puck back to Kane, who wristed a shot over Ellis.
“I fired it on net, and it kind of hit the top shelf. It was one of those plays . . . but it went in,” said Kane, who played his 200th career game. “We got four points (this weekend), and they got none. So it’s almost like an eight-point weekend for us, and we put some distance between us and them.”
The teams won’t meet again in the regular season. Chicago won the season series 4-2.
