Dylan Strome’s 1st career hat trick sparks the Chicago Blackhawks’ season-high scoring output in a wild 8-5 win against the Detroit Red Wings

DETROIT — The Chicago Blackhawks exploded for four goals in the first period — and nearly gave it all back during a horrendous three-goal second period for the Detroit Red Wings — but Dylan Strome’s first career hat trick helped save the day as the Hawks held on to win 8-5 on Wednesday at Little Caesars Arena.

For a team struggling to find offense, the eight goals were the most the Hawks have generated all season — by far. They scored five Nov. 1 in a victory against the Ottawa Senators and again Dec. 15 during an overtime win against the Washington Capitals.

Strome scored on the power play and five-on-five in the first — his first multigoal game since March 3, 2020 — then added another power-play goal in the third to help ward off the Red Wings threat. Sam Lafferty, whom the Hawks acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins this month, recorded his first goal of the season and first point as a Hawk.

“It feels good obviously,” Strome said. “I haven’t had a hat trick since Memorial Cup in 2017 (a four-goal, three assist game for the Erie Otters), so it’s been a long time. Obviously I’ll take it.”

The seesaw nature of the game wasn’t for the faint of heart, and Hawks coach Derek King even felt weird about his team taking a 4-0 lead.

“I was just like, ‘I’m not sure about this game’ — I’m not used to that,” King said.

And when the Red Wings rallied in the second and third, “I was just like, ‘Uh, I’m not feeling good about this,’” King said. “But the good thing is the guys didn’t just go in a shell, they kept going and plugging along. When (the Red Wings) made mistakes, we capitalized just like they did.”

For the first 7 minutes, the Red Wings had the Hawks on their heels, feasting on zone time and accounting for six of the first seven shots on goal.

But later in the period the Hawks had five straight cracks at the net — mostly coming from Lafferty’s line with Alex DeBrincat and Jonathan Toews — before Dominik Kubalík put the Hawks up 1-0 with a tap-in he had to gather before putting it in. Seth Jones and Philipp Kurashev assisted.

After Strome’s first two goals, Lafferty capped the first-period scoring with 32 seconds left.

The Red Wings roared back in the second. Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi scored a minute apart, and ex-Hawk Pius Suter compounded the pain for his old team, snapping a shot down the middle with 13 seconds left before the Hawks could escape to intermission.

On the first Red Wings goal, Hawks defenseman Calvin de Haan blocked Fabbri’s shot but gave the puck right back to him. The giveaway turned into a centering pass for Fabbri, who deked Marc-André Fleury to put the Red Wings on the board 5 minutes, 45 seconds into the second.

Fifty-six seconds later, Bertuzzi and Filip Hronek artfully weaved through Hawks defenders before Bertuzzi slipped Hronek’s rebound underneath Fleury’s wing.

Later in the period, Bertuzzi screened Fleury when Suter sniped his shot.

In the third, Suter committed his second hooking penalty and third infraction overall to set up the Hawks on their third power play. Strome fought through Marc Staal’s defense to deflect in a shot by Jones.

Alex DeBrincat padded the lead to 6-3, but Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin scored to make it a one-goal game again.