Blackhawks humble Red Wings 7-2, win streak halted at 2

The Red Wings’ win streak never reached three.

It ended at two Sunday, as the Wings lost in Chicago 7-2.

The Wings had won two consecutive games Saturday for the first time this season — and had actually won three of four games — but Chicago rookie goaltender Kevin Lankinen continued his mastery, defeating the Wings for the fourth time this season.

BOX SCORE: Blackhawks 7, Red Wings 2

Lankinen made 44 saves, as the Wings posted a season high with 46 shots on net.

Sam Gagner and Evgeny Svechnikov (power play) had Wings goals.

Nikita Zadorov, Ryan Carpenter (two goals), Pius Suter, Patrick Kane, Dominik Kubalik and Alex DeBrincat (Farmington Hills) had Blackhawks goals against a Wings team that struggled defensively.

"Our tracking and sorting in our end was as bad as it has been all year, and it's actually been good all season," coach Jeff Blashill said. "They have a good rush team, they do a good job off the rush and make it hard on you. But we did a terrible job of sorting those out, and a lot of them weren't hard sorts.

"We had numbers back but we didn't pick up the right people and gave away too many free looks."

After the Wings kept Kane off the scoring column for the weekend, the 2016 NHL MVP finally scored career goal No. 400 midway in the third period.

More:Red Wings will be without Larkin for weekend

Going down the ice on a two-on-one rush with DeBrincat, Kane kept the puck, curled inside and pinpointed a shot in the slot past goaltender Thomas Greiss (Kane's 11th goal this season).

Kane becomes the fourth active player to reach 400 and 10th in NHL history.

Suter scored his seventh goal, fourth against the Wings, at 1:32 of the third period, extending the Chicago lead to 3-1 and making any thoughts of a Wings comeback that much tougher.

Get full access to all of our content, including in-depth pieces on the sports, news and business you care about most. Click here to sign up today.

Kane entered the Wings' zone with ease and left a drop-back pass for Suter, who lined a shot past Greiss. 

Carpenter then extended the lead to 4-1 at 7:06, on the power play, with his third goal and second Sunday night. Carpenter had the puck in the slot and snapped a shot past a screened Greiss.

Greiss made 25 saves, but saw his record drop to 1-11-3 during a thus far snake-bit season. Greiss smashed his blocker in frustration after DeBrincat's goal off a rush gave Chicago its 7-2 lead.

"Guys need to do a better job of picking him up and it starts on the ice," Gagner said. "He's playing hard for us. He made some big saves early and when you give a team like that odd-man rush chances, they will make you pay. It's not fair to Greisser. We have to do a better job of playing in front of him and limiting their chances."

Blashill felt the Wings allowed too many quality chances against Greiss.

"He actually was good for long stretches of the game, and when you give up that many high-quality scoring chances, you give up backdoors, you're going to sink back in your net a little bit," Blashill said. "He showed signs of frustration but he'll put it behind him and attack next time he gets to play."

Zadorov opened scoring at 11:14 of the first period.

Zadorov trailed on a rush and received a drop-back pass from David Kampf in the high slot. Zadorov took a stride, and whistled a shot past Greiss, for Zadorov's first goal.

The Blackhawks moved the lead to 2-0 on Carpenter's goal, his second of the season.

Frans Nielsen turned the puck over with an errant pass to Chicago defenseman John Mitchell. The puck reached Carpenter near the dot, where his shot caromed off Christian Djoos' stick, then off Alex Biega's face, before flying past Greiss at 17:13.

But the Wings showed fortitude, slicing the lead on the next shift.

More:Patience pays off for Red Wings' Evgeny Svechnikov with big offensive night

Gagner scored his fourth goal in the last three games, getting his stick on Jon Merrill's point shot, and redirecting the puck past Lankinen at 17:51.

Svechnikov cut the Chicago (12-7-4) lead to 5-2 at 12:11 of the third period, with his second goal in two games since being inserted into the lineup, snapping a shot from the dot.

"You're pressing for offense there in the end, guys are doing what they can to create, but it can't be at the expense of our structure defensively," Gagner said. "That's when we have success, that's what drives it. We have to make sure we stick to the identity, regardless of what's happening in a game and continue to press for 60 minutes, and in the end, you live with the results. That has to be our mindset."

The Wings (7-14-3) close this four-game road trip with games in Columbus (Tuesday) and Carolina (Thursday).

The Wings played without forward Robby Fabbri — Blashill said Fabbri was close to playing Sunday and is considered day-to-day — and defenseman Patrick Nemeth, who was placed on the NHL COVID-19 protocol list Sunday afternoon.

Blashill doesn't know whether forward Dylan Larkin (upper body) would be ready to play Tuesday.

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @tkulfan