Andreas Athanasiou scored twice and the Chicago Blackhawks snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-2 win against the host Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Lukas Reichel had two assists and Petr Mrazek made 33 saves for the Blackhawks (25-46-6, 56 points).
Noah Hanifin had a goal and an assist for the Flames (36-27-15, 87 points), who missed a chance to tie the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves.
Athanasiou gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 5:09 of the first period. Reichel took a pass from Jonathan Toews and quickly fed Athanasiou, who took it to the slot before beating Markstrom glove side.
Tyler Toffoli tied it 1-1 at 11:52. Chicago defenseman Seth Jones intercepted Andrew Mangiapane’s pass attempt and tried to send it over to his brother, Caleb Jones, but Toffoli got his stick on the floating puck to put it in the back of the net.
Jujhar Khaira put the Blackhawks back in front 2-1 at 19:22. Boris Katchouk intercepted a soft rim behind the net by Nazem Kadri and quickly dished to Khaira streaking toward the net.
Hanifin finished off a passing play from the slot to tie it 2-2 at 11:44 of the second period.
The Flames outshot the Blackhawks 19-4 in the middle frame, holding the visitors without a shot on goal for the final 11 minutes of the period.
Athanasiou stole the puck in the neutral zone and converted on a give-and-go on a 2-on-1 with Reichel for a 3-2 Chicago lead at 1:42 of the third period, depositing it into a wide-open net after Markstrom overcommitted to Reichel.
Austin Wagner pushed it to 4-2 at 3:11 when he scored from the left circle on a 2-on-1.
Mikael Backlund banked one off the skate of Blackhawks defenseman Ian Mitchell from the bottom of the right circle to narrow it to 4-3 at 13:09.
–Field Level Media
