Blackhawks beat Canadiens for 11th straight win

Kane sports biggest grin as smiles all round for Chicago side

Patrick Kane had a big grin on his face as he skated around the back of the net to congratulate Artemi Panarin on his nifty pass in the third period.

Lots of smiles for the Chicago Blackhawks these days.

The Blackhawks matched a franchise record with their 11th straight victory, using two goals from Jonathan Toews to beat the slumping Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Sunday. “Every night’s a little bit different, but net-net I think we’re playing responsible, playing the score, playing the time, and got some momentum,” coach Joel Quenneville said.

Marian Hossa had an emptynet goal and two assists for Chicago, and Kane had a goal and an assist. Richard Panik scored his first goal of the season, and Corey Crawford, a Montreal native, made 27 saves while improving to 5-0-2 in seven career starts against his hometown team.

Winning streak

The Blackhawks (31-13-4) also won 11 straight from Feb. 15 to March 6, 2013, and then went on to the second of three Stanley Cup titles in the past six seasons. The defending NHL champions, who won 2-1 at Montreal on Thursday, go for 12 in a row at Nashville on Tuesday night.

“In 2013, we had an unbelievable

stretch, but right now, definitely it’s another one,” Hossa said. “It’s another new chapter and it’s just nice to see everybody contributing in a different way. Overall, it’s a winning attitude, so it’s nice to see.”

Montreal (23-19-4) have lost four in a row and five of six. The Canadiens also dropped to 6-152 since star goaltender Carey Price was shelved by a lowerbody injury in November.

“We’re going to get out of this,” forward Brendan Gallagher said. “It’s taken longer than we would have liked, but we’re going to get out of this. The only way we’re going to do that is sticking together as a group. Tonight we weren’t good enough.”

Lars Eller and Max Pacioretty scored for Montreal, and Ben Scrivens made 28 stops in his first start since Jan. 5 at Philadelphia. Scrivens, who was acquired in a December 28 trade with Edmonton, are winless in three starts on the season. The Canadiens were coming off a 4-3 overtime loss at St. Louis on Saturday.