Halak, Boeser help Canucks top Blackhawks

CHICAGO (AP) — Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau likes his goaltender tandem of Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak.

It was Halak's turn on Monday night.

Halak made 20 saves and Brock Boeser scored, leading Vancouver to a 3-1 victory over the listless Chicago Blackhawks.

“When you've got goaltending you're in every game,” Boudreau said, “and we've been blessed with that.”

The 36-year-old Halak picked up his second victory of the season in his first game since Dec. 30. He was reinstated from COVID-19 protocols on Thursday.

“Try to get in a groove right away. It's never easy, but ... guys played pretty good in front of me tonight,” Halak said. “We didn't give them a lot, especially in the third.”

Alex Chiasson and Luke Schenn also scored for Vancouver, which had dropped four of five. The Canucks managed just 15 shots on goal in a 1-0 overtime loss at Calgary on Saturday night.

Connor Murphy scored for the Blackhawks, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 stops.

Playing without captain Jonathan Toews, who missed his second straight game because of a concussion, Chicago lost for the sixth time in seven games. It dropped to 5-7-5 in its last 17 games overall.

“We don’t have that luxury of making two or three mistakes,” interim coach Derek King said. “We have to play a pretty solid hockey game, and we were just flat at times. We had a few pushes, but we were a little flat.”

The Blackhawks trailed 2-0 before Murphy drove a long slap shot past Halak with 6:59 left. It was the defenseman's fourth goal of the season and just his fourth point in his last 18 games.

Chicago pushed for the tying goal, but it was whistled for too many men on the ice at 16:53. Schenn then put it away with an empty-netter with 21 seconds left.

“Can’t happen