Blackhawks goalie Robin Lehner has been effusive all season about his respect for the Islanders and their up-and-coming team.
But for the first of two days this season, Lehner was anti-Islanders on Friday, making 38 saves in the Hawks’ 5-2 rousing victory at the United Center.
‘‘I felt like my last four starts felt pretty good,’’ Lehner said. ‘‘But this is against a former team; they meant a lot to me. It was a little bit different than the other times I’ve played against former teams because they’re a great group of guys in there.”
Lehner allowed an early goal in the first period and a late goal in the third but otherwise dominated, and the Hawks capitalized on a strangely leaky performance by Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss.
The Hawks have won three of their last four games in the strangest of ways: three victories against teams in playoff spots and a 7-1 loss to the bottom-feeding Devils.
Lehner and coach Jeremy Colliton take contrasting views on those results.
‘‘Everyone’s expecting we go on a huge run, which we want to do, but let’s be realistic,’’ Lehner said. ‘‘Try to win two out of [every] three games going forward to climb slowly but surely, and we’ll get there.’’
‘‘There’s going to be some up and down, but I think there’s too much for my liking,’’ Colliton said. ‘‘It’s hard to climb the ladder if you don’t put together multiple good performances in a row.’’
The Hawks have at least put together some good third periods recently, not counting the debacle against the Devils. In victories against the Jets, Avalanche and Islanders, they have a combined 9-2 edge in goals and 24-19 advantage in scoring chances in the third.
That’s an undeniably uplifting sign moving forward.
‘‘We had a pretty good start today,’’ said wing Dominik Kubalik, who scored one of the Hawks’ three goals in the first period. ‘‘After that, the confidence is back. So [we’re] trying to build on it.’’
Caggiula update
Seven weeks since his concussion and three weeks since he initially expected to return, wing Drake Caggiula finally took a step forward.
He participated in line rushes and battle drills during the Hawks’ relatively intense morning skate/full practice hybrid, which was intended to make up for the three-day holiday break.
‘‘The practices I’ve been doing have mostly been by myself,’’ Caggiula said. “So it’s nice to do that three-on-three drill at the end, get some guys pushing on you, leaning on you, testing you out and just being visually aware of what’s going on around you.”
Caggiula, 25, is having only isolated symptoms now. They pop up for an hour or less once every three or four days. But because this isn’t one of his first concussions, he’s in no rush to come back.
‘‘I don’t expect it to be too much longer, but I’m not setting a date because I’ve been disappointed before trying to do that,’’ he said.
Gilbert scores first goal
Defenseman Dennis Gilbert wrote another chapter in his storybook season by scoring his first NHL goal.
Gilbert made a deft maneuver in traffic and trickled a backhand through Greiss in the first period. He added a game-high three blocks.
‘‘He had a hell of a game, blocked a lot of good shots,’’ Lehner said. ‘‘He steps up for us every game right now and deserves a lot of credit.’’
