Halak, Blues quiet Hawks

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ST. LOUISThe Blackhawks got pushed around physically against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. Nevertheless, they could have delivered a few blows of their own on the power play.

But once again they were punch less on it.

Andrew Brunette scored an early third-period goal but the Blackhawks went 0 for 5 on the power play en route to a 5-1 loss to the Blues on Tuesday night. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Blackhawks, who remain in sixth place in the Western Conference.

The Blackhawks lost defenseman Sami Lepisto in the second period when he collided with David Perron and Perron fell on the back of his left leg. Lepisto struggled to get to the locker room, putting no weight on that leg; coach Joel Quenneville said hes day to day, and that it wasnt serious.

The Blues came with their usual brawn and bruising stylehometown man Brandon Bollig had a long and impressive fight with Ryan Reaves in the first period. The Blues came with scoring, too, with TJ Oshie giving them a 1-0 lead a little over five minutes into the game.

Yeah, that was probably one of their goals tonight was to play physical against us. It seemed to work for them. But we have to have a better start than that, Patrick Kane said. We knew they were going to come out hard. Giving up a goal that early its tough to come back, especially against a team like that thats content to just play defense and not give up anything.

But the Blackhawks had their best chance to fight back with their power play.

But on a night when they needed it most, it disappeared.

We didnt push back in certain areas but I thought we had a chance to get ourselves back in with the power play and thats where we lost the momentum, coach Joel Quenneville said. Certain guys tonight didnt have the pace or intensity you need on the power play. You have to work harder on the power play, its not a given.

As good as the Blackhawks had played the Blues recently, they didnt have that same energy and fight against them on Tuesday. Their puck possession was rough and the Blues were more than happy to take advantage of mistakes. That included a mishandled puck on one of the power plays, which the BluesVladimir Sobotka, to be specificturned into a short-handed goal.

We clicked (on the power play) in three games but tonight we couldnt settle the puck down, couldnt make a pass, said Marian Hossa. We didnt deserve to win tonight.

The Blackhawks didnt have the punch they needed against the Blues, especially on that power play. Their special teams had been strong in recent victories. They failed them tonight.

Special teams are something to get momentum off, even when its not scoring a goal maybe its puck possession or a couple blocks on the PK. Tonight they won that, and thats tough, Stalberg said. We have a lot of games this year where those kinds of chances take us out of the game.

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