Marian Hossa continued his hot offensive play as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 on Friday.
Hossa, who scored twice in each of his previous three games, tallied a goal and an assist and Jonathan Toews and Kris Versteeg also lit the lamp for the Blackhawks, who ended a two-game skid.
Corey Crawford made 25 saves and tied Jocelyn Thibault for the fourth most wins by a goaltender in franchise history with 137.
Peter Harrold scored New Jersey's lone goal and Cory Schneider stopped 32 shots in the team's third straight loss.
The Blackhawks scored twice early in the third period to seize control.
Trailing 2-0, Hossa wristed a shot from the right circle through the legs of Devils defenseman Jon Merrill and past the glove of Schneider 1:27 into the final stanza.
Just over three minutes later, Hossa went hard to the net and had his backhander in tight denied by Schneider. Toews, however, was there to knock in the rebound for a 2-1 Chicago lead.
Schneider came up with a big stop on Patrick Kane with over a minute to play as he stopped the star forward with a pad save on the breakaway, but Versteeg sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 44 seconds remaining.
In the first, Toews rang a shot off the post on a power play late period, but it was New Jersey that scored first.
Harrold took a pass from Scott Gomez and fired a shot from the right circle that went off Crawford's pad and the post before crossing the goal line with 4:30 left in the opening stanza.
Game Notes
Forward Ryan Hartman, Chicago's first-round selection in the 2013 draft, made his NHL debut ... Harrold scored his first goal since Nov. 28 ... Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook had two assists ... The Blackhawks have won their last four games against the Devils ... New Jersey forward Patrik Elias played in his 1,200th NHL game, while defenseman Mark Fraser appeared in his 200th career contest ... Devils forward Jaromir Jagr skated in his 1,524th career game, tying Brendan Shanahan for 13th place on the NHL's all-time list.
[SportsNetwork.com]
