Here are four takeaways from the Blackhawks' 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars at the United Center on Sunday:
1. Sluggish start
The Blackhawks came out of the gates flying, recording three consecutive shots on goal and preventing the Stars from getting their first until the 4:06 mark. But then it was all Dallas.
At even strength, the Stars led in scoring chances (13-4) and high-danger chances (8-1), according to naturalstattrick.com, and capitalized on a couple of them when Radek Faksa and Alexander Radulov each found the back of the net on prime scoring chances. It's the fifth time in six games the Blackhawks have given up the first goal, and they found themselves chasing the game.
"Didn't mind sort of the first 5-8 minutes of the game," coach Jeremy Colliton said. "We had some good stretches, had some opportunities in their end, had some point shots, deflections, what not. But then I think around minute 12 basically until they went up 3-0, we got away from what we need to do to have success. I thought we were playing slow, turning the puck back. We allowed them to sit with five guys and cause turnovers and the puck ended up in the back of our net a bunch of times which made it, even though we played really well the rest of the game, we were just uphill the whole game."
2. Fighting back again
Give credit to the Blackhawks. No matter what the deficits have been, they've been able to claw back in many of the games they've trailed early on. On Friday, they rallied three different times. On Monday, they overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the Ottawa Senators.
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On Sunday they did it again. After the Stars scored three straight goals to open the game, the Blackhawks responded with three of their own — Chris Kunitz, Drake Caggiula and Jonathan Toews — to even it up at 3-3 in the third period.
But they don't want to make a habit out of playing from behind. The Blackhawks didn't hold the lead at any point over their past two games against divisional opponents, which were crucial in the standings, and it's why they came up empty this weekend.
"I don't think we're happy with our start tonight," Toews said. "But other than that, pretty solid efforts in both games. Especially at home, we played with a lot of energy. We definitely raised our game knowing these points are huge. Even though you play good hockey doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win every night. Two teams that are just as desperate as we are to stay on top, sneak into a playoff spot. Unfortunately, we couldn't take advantage of these home games."
3. The turning point
The turning point of the game came midway through the third period when the Blackhawks were whistled for too many men, and then, 38 seconds later Duncan Keith was guilty of a tripping penalty. The Stars converted on the 5-on-3 opportunity thanks to a tap-in backdoor goal from Jason Spezza, and it put the Blackhawks back down a goal.
"At the end of the day, I think we worked hard, but we didn't get the job done so it stings," Keith said. "It was obviously two big division games, but nothing we can do it about it now and just try to get two points here in Anaheim."
4. Late push
Despite falling behind again, the Blackhawks had a golden opportunity to regain control towards the latter stages of the third period when Dominik Kahun drew a high-sticking penalty that resulted in a four-minute power play with 4:34 left in regulation.
The internal belief that they would tie it up was there, and so were the chances, with the Blackhawks finishing the game with six consecutive shots on goal over that span, but they couldn't crack Anton Khudobin, who turned aside 44 of 47 shots.
"Unfortunately couldn't get any draws going to kind of save our energy and wear them down, keep them in their own end," Toews said. "Still creating chances, just couldn't find the back of the net. Yeah, tough one, big opportunities there to try and at least even the game up, if not take over in the third. Sucks that we let that one slip."
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